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CHARACTER  OF  ST.  PAUL. 


BY 

J.   S.    HOWSON,    D.D., 

DEAN    OF   CHESTER. 


NEW  YORK: 
DODD  &  MEAD,  PUBLISHERS. 

762  Broadway. 


LECTURE  I. 
TACT  AND   PRESENCE  OF  MIND. 


In  Paul's  preaching  I  discover  nothing  of  that  spirit  which  delights 
in  doing  violence  to  the  feelings  of  an  audience,  and  takes  its  pas- 
time in  communicating  offensive  truths  in  the  most  offensive  manner. 
He  is  conscious  of  his  commission,  but  has  no  wish  on  every  occa- 
sion to  put  forth  all  its  powers.  On  the  contrary,  nothing  is  more 
striking  in  the  discourses  of  St.  Paul  than  the  tenderness  and  deli- 
cacy displayed  in  them  towards  the  persons  he  is  called  upon  to 
instruct,  exhort,  or  reprove.  He  faithfully  administers  the  worm- 
wood, but  still  anoints  the  lip  of  the  cup  ....  So,  in  his  pastoral 
intercourse  with  the  people,  practical  good  sense  (as  we  should  say 
of  an  ordinary  man)  ever  governed  his  advice  ....  His  maxims 
are  all  such  as  would  be  considered  by  the  most  politic  children  of 
this  world  judicious  and  wise  ....  And  I  cannot  but  observe  what 
a  fund  of  evidence  for  the  truth  of  the  Gospel  lies  in  this  feature  of 
St.  Paul's  character — for  as  nobody,  I  am  sure,  can  read  his  Epistles, 
and  doubt  for  a  moment  the  sincerity  of  his  own  belief  in  the  doc- 
trines he  was  teaching,  so  no  one  can  contemplate  the  considerate 
temperament,  so  distinctly  manifested  in  him,  without  feeling 
equally  sure  that  he  was  no  visionary,  no  dupe  to  fancies  of  his  own, 
but  was  a  man  to  weigh  testimony  before  he  yielded  to  it. 

J.  J.  Blunt. 


pOPWTY  OF 

THBOL06IO^ 


LECTURE  I. 
TACT  AND  PRESENCE  OF  MIND. 


"  Walk  in  wisdom  toward  them  that  are  without,  redeeming  the  time:  Let 
your  speech  be  alway  with  grace,  seasoned  with  salt,  that  ye  mag  know  how  ye 
ought  to  answer  every  man." — Col.  iv.  5,  6. 


The  first,  and  by  no  means  the  easiest,  duty  of  the 
Lecturer  appointed  to  preach  these  sermons  con- 
sists in  the  judicious  choice  of  a  subject.  The 
conditions  of  the  endowment  under  which  the 
sermons  are  preached  prescribe  that  their  topics 
are  to  have  some  reference,  to  the  Difficulties  of 
Scripture  or  the  Evidences  of  Christianity.  Here 
is  manifestly  no  very  narrow  restriction.  But 
when  it  is  considered  that  the  subjects,  however 
chosen,  must  be  kept  within  the  limits  of  four  or 
five  lectures* — that  these  Lectures,  too,  are  to  be 
really  Sermons  orally  delivered — it  does  not  seem 
*  See  the  Preface. 


THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 


judicious  to  aim  at  the  construction  of  abstruse  or 
learned  treatises.  And  when,  further,  the  Lecturer 
feels,  as  on  the  present  occasion,  that  he  is  forced 
to  take  a  modest  estimate  of  his  own  powers,  his 
wisdom  is  to  decline  what  demands  elaborate  treat- 
ment or  is  embarrassed  with  peculiar  difficulties. 
His  natural  course  (while  not  forgetting  the  main 
purpose  of  the  Lectures)  is  to  choose  some  subject 
with  which  he  himself  is  already  familiar,  which 
admits  of  being  easily  broken  into  separate  portions, 
and  which,  however  superficial,  has  yet,  for  its 
own  sake,  a  fair  claim  to  be  listened  to  with 
interest  and  attention. 

These  considerations  have  determined  me  to 
preach  on  the  Character  of  St.  Paul — not  on  the 
details  of  his  journeys,  not  on  the  peculiarities  of 
his  style,  not  on  his  modes  of  teaching,  whether 
doctrinal  or  moral — though  all  these  must  in- 
cidentally furnish  materials — but  on  the  features 
of  the  personal  character  of  the  man  himself, 
whether  those  features  were  natural  or  the  result 
of  his  religion. 


TACT    AND    PRESENCE    OF    MIND.  5 

Here  no  doubt  is  a  difficulty  at  the  outset.  It 
is  not  easy,  in  any  Christian  biography,  to  separate 
always  what  belongs  to  nature  and  what  belongs 
to  grace — not  easy,  in  St.  PauPs  case,  to  distin- 
guish what  he  would  have  been,  if  he  had  remained 
a  Pharisee,  from  what  he  actually  became  as  an 
Inspired  Apostle.  But  of  Apostles,  as  of  all  con- 
verted men,  it  is  true  that  much  of  the  natural 
character  is  carried  within  the  sphere  of  grace. 
And  without  attempting  to  draw  this  line  of  sepa- 
ration, at  least  for  the  present,  I  may  successively 
take  one  characteristic  at  a  time,  and  make  it  the 
subject  of  separate  discourse.  Nor  can  any  one  of 
such  sermons  be  held  unsuitable  to  any  audience, 
whether  it  be  a  Scientific  Congress  at  the  bejrin- 
ning  of  the  month,*  or  the  influx  of  new  Uni- 
versity Students  at  the  end  of  it.f 

This  plan,  as  I  have  said,  admits  of  separate 
sermons,  each  having  a  unity   of  its  own.      Yet 

*  This  Lecture  was  delivered  during  the  week  in  which  the 
British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science  met  at  Cam- 
bridge. 

f  See  Lecture  LI. 


6  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

three  purposes  I  wish  to  keep  definitely  before  me 
throughout,  (i.)  In  the  first  place,  so  far  as  the 
same  features  of  character  come  easily  and  natu- 
rally into  view  from  a  survey  of  all  the  documents 
which  supply  our  information — from  all  those 
parts  of  the  book  of  the  Acts  which  affect  this 
Apostle,  and  from  all  the  letters  written  by  the 
Apostle  himself — we  obtain  an  argument  for  the 
authenticity  of  all ;  for  if  we  can  follow  one  thread 
through  the  whole,  even  though  that  thread  be  a 
fine  one,  it  is  surely  some  indication  that  the  tex- 
ture of  the  whole  is  coherent.  (2.)  Secondly,  so 
far  as  a  definite  and  self-consistent  character 
emerges  into  view,  on  an  examination  of  all  that 
is  written  by  St.  Paul  or  concerning  him,  so  far  (it 
seems  to  me)  we  have  rather  a  stubborn  argument 
to  present  against  the  theory  that  Christianity,  in 
the  form  in  which  the  New  Testament  exhibits  it, 
came  together  by  a  kind  of  accidental  or  mythical 
process.  (3.)  But,  thirdly  (and  I  cannot  but  dwell 
with  most  satisfaction  on  this),  we  have  here,  in 
all  its  parts,  a  religiously  practical  subject.     There 


TACT    AND    PRESENCE    OF    MIND.  7 

is  something  very  unsatisfactory  in  dealing  in  the 
pulpit  with  the  mere  abstract  evidences  of  Christi- 
anity— in  turning  a  consecrated  building  into  a 
court  of  inquiry,  and  putting  the  Gospel,  as  it 
were,  on  its  trial — when  we  ought  rather  to  be 
thinking  of  souls  to  be  saved.  But  this  subject 
relieves  us  from  any  such  necessity.  And  so  far 
as  we  can  accurately  describe  St.  Paul's  character, 
we  must  be  fulfilling  his  precept,  as  contained  in 
the  text.  We  shall  certainly  thus  be  '  redeeming 
the  time ; ;  for  time  so  occupied  can  never  be  lost. 
Our  words  will  really  be  '  seasoned  with  salt/  be- 
cause they  will  have  the  wholesome  flavour  of 
Practical  Christianity. 

As  to  the  text  which  I  have  chosen,  because  it 
suitably  introduces  us  to  the  first  feature  of  St. 
Paul's  character  which  I  propose  for  consideration, 
it  means  rather  more  than  at  first  sight  appears. 
Even  a  careful  reader  might  fail  to  catch  the  full 
meaning  of  the  words  which  the  Apostle  uses  here, 
and  almost  identically  in  the  parallel  Epistle, 
written  at  the  same  time  to  the  Ephesians.     They 


8  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

belong  to  a  class  of  metaphors  characteristic  of  St. 
Paul,  drawn,  not  (as  is  the  case,  for  instance,  with 
St.  James*)  from  the  natural  world,  but  from  the 
intercourse  and  employments  of  busy  human  life — ■ 
such  as  marriage,  or  the  making  of  wills,  or  Greek 
games,  or  Roman  soldiers,  or  agriculture,  architec- 
ture, slavery.  Here  the  metaphor  is  from  the 
market.  What  the  Apostle  in  effect  says  is  this — 
( Buy  out  of  the  market  what  you  may  never  find 
so  cheap  again.  Act  like  a  wise  and  intelligent 
merchant.     Seize  the  opportunity  while  you  have 

*  There  is  more  imagery  drawn  from  mere  natural  phenomena  in 
the  one  short  Epistle  of  St.  James — '  the  waves  of  the  sea  driven  with 
the  wind  and  tossed  '  (Jam.  i.  6),  '  the  flower  of  the  grass'  (ib.  10), 
'  the  sun  risen  with  a  burning  heat'  (ib.  n),'the  fierce  winds' 
(iii.  4),  'the  kindling  of  the  fire'  (ib.  5),  'the  beasts,  birds,  and 
serpents,  and  things  in  the  sea'  (ib.  7),  '  the  fig,  olive,  and  vine,' 
1  the  salt  water  and  fresh  '  (ib.  12),  '  the  vapour  that  appeareth  for 
a  little  time  and  then  vanisheth  away'  (iv.  14),  '  the  moth-eaten 
garments'  (v.  2), 'the  rust'  (ib.  3),  'the  early  and  latter  rain' 
(ib.  7),  'the  earth  bringing  forth  her  fruit'  (ib.  18) — than  in  all 
St.  Paul's  Epistles  put  together.  The  reference  to  the  growth  of 
grain  (1  Cor.  xv.  37),  and  to  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  (ib.  41),  is 
perhaps  the  nearest  approximation  in  St.  Paul  to  imagery  of  this 
kind,  but  even  there  the  context  causes  a  characteristic  difference. 
See  the  'Metaphors  of  St.  Paul,'  pp.  94,  131. 


TACT  AND  PRESENCE  OF  MIND.      9 

it.  Say  words  that  fit  the  occasion,  and  say  them 
promptly.  Be  not  insipid.  Be  definite  and  to 
the  point,  and  remember  to  whom  you  speak. 
Gracefully  conciliate.  Do  not  rudely  offend.  It 
may  be  your  last  opportunity  of  winning  a  soul/ 

Now  what  St.  Paul  enjoins  here  he  eminently 
practised.  There  was  in  him  (while  he  keeps  his 
main  spiritual  aim  always  before  him)  an  extra- 
ordinary subtility  and  versatility,  which  adapted 
itself  easily  and  rapidly  to  the  circumstances  of 
the  moment.  If  I  were  to  fix  on  any  one  charac- 
teristic which,  after  a  little  careful  study,  seems  to 
stand  out  most  prominently  on  the  surface,  I  should 
say  that  it  was  his  Tact  and  Presence  of  Mind. 

This  of  course  is  to  be  established  by  collecting 
scattered  instances.  Where  shall  we  begin  ?  In 
itself  this  is  not  a  matter  of  much  consequence. 
But  in  treating  St.  Paul  apologetically,  I  always 
feel  inclined  first  to  take  my  stand  on  that  chapter 
(the  last  but  one  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles) 
which  describes  the  storm  and  the  shipwreck  on 
the  voyage  to  Rome.     It  appears  to  me  that  no- 


10  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

thing  is  more  certain  than  that  the  writer  was  on 
board  that  ship  and  that  he  tells  the  truth.*  It 
might  be  thought  strange  that  so  large  a  space,  in 
a  volume  which  we  believe  to  be  inspired,  should 
contain  so  much  circumstantial  detail,  with  so 
little  of  religious  exhortation  and  precept.  The 
chapter  might  seem  merely  intended  to  give  us 
information  concerning  the  ships  and  seafaring  of 
the  ancient  world;  and  certainly  nothing  in  the 
whole  range  of  Greek  and  Roman  literature  does 
teach  us  so  much  on  these  subjects. f     What  if  it 

*  In  considering  the  whole  varied  and  complicated  subject  of 
Christian  Evidence,  something  depends  on  the  road  by  which  the 
ground  is  approached.  Different  minds  too  are  differently  affected. 
To  some  minds  the  most  impressive  approach  is  by  the  morality  of 
the  New  Testament,  or  by  the  character  of  Jesus  as  given  in  the 
Gospels.  A  starting-point  is  thus  gained  which  gives  confidence 
in  regard  to  the  view  of  the  whole  subject.  I  venture  to  think 
that  such  confidence  may  reasonably  be  acquired  by  establishing 
the  literal  truth  of  this  concluding  part  of  the  Acts,  and  then  argu- 
ing backwards  to  the  rest  of  the  book,  and  backwards  again  to 
St.  Luke's  Gospel.  If  a  conviction  is  thus  obtained  not  only  of 
the  historical  but  of  the  Divine  origin  of  Christianity,  all  other  ques- 
tions of  Christian  evidence  begin  to"  fall  into  their  right  places. 

f  A  reference  may  be  allowed  here  to  the  23  rd  Chapter  of  the 
'  Life  and  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,'  and  to  the  article  Ship  in  the  '  Dic- 
tionary of  the  Bible.' 


TACT    AND    PRESENCE    OF    MIND.  II 

was  divinely  ordained  that  there  should  be  one 
large  passage  in  the  new  Testament — one,  and 
just  one — that  could  be  minutely  tested  in  the 
accuracy  of  its  mere  circumstantial  particulars — 
and  that  it  should  have  been  so  tested  and  attested 
j  ust  at  the  time  when  such  accuracy  is  most  search- 
ingly  questioned  ?  This  is  certain,  that  thirty 
years  ago  there  was  no  printed  book  in  Europe 
that  gave  either  a  correct  or  an  intelligible  account 
of  this  voyage;  while  now,  perhaps,  it  is  more  pel- 
lucid in  all  its  parts  than  any  of  the  longer  narra- 
tives of  the  Sacred  Volume.  Nor  would  it  be 
right  on  this  occasion  to  forget  that  the  first  pub- 
lished illustration  came  from  one  of  the  early  mem- 
bers of  the  British  Association,  one  whose  autho- 
rity is  (I  believe)  among  the  highest  in  the  geology 
of  coasts,  and  who,  by  a  happy  application  of 
scientific  knowledge,  combined  with  practical 
experience  of  the  sea,  has  produced  a  Biblical 
Commentary  that  (within  its  own  range)  will 
never  be  superseded.* 

*  The  '  Voyage  and  Shipwreck  of  St.  Paul,'  by  James  Smith, 


12  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

.  But  we  were  to  look  in  this  part  of  the  Acts  of 
the  Apostles  for  some  proof  of  St.  Paul's  tact  and 
presence  of  mind.  Now  (leaving  altogether  un- 
noticed that  serene  self-possession  which  is  con- 
spicuous enough  throughout)  I  find  an  instance  of 
ready  resource  and  prompt  good  sense  at  one  very 
critical  moment.*  The  vessel  is  at  anchor  in  a  dark 
night  on  a  lee  shore  in  a  gale  of  wind.  Breakers 
are  distinctly  heard,  the  soundings  show  that  the 
danger  is  imminent,  and  no  one  can  possibly  tell  if 
the  anchors  will  hold ;  and,  besides  this,  the  ship 
is  in  so  leaky  a  condition  that  it  is  highly  probable 
she  may  go  down  before  daybreak.  The  sailors 
are  doing  what  is  very  selfish,  but  very  natural,  f 
They  are  lowering  the  boat,  after  having  given  a 
plausible  excuse  to  the  passengers,  but  simply  with 
the  intention  of  savino-  themselves.     If  a  tumult 

D 

Esq.,  of  Jordanhill,  has  now  for  some  time  been  recognized,  both  in 
England  and  on  the  Continent,  as  an  original  and  exhaustive 
answer  to  all  the  nautical  questions  in  this  narrative.  Soon  after 
this  sermon  was  preached,  Mr.  Smith  published  in  one  volume  his 
chief  essays  on  the  geology  of  coasts  ( •  Researches  in  Newer  Plio- 
cene and  Post-Tertiary  Geology  : '  Glasgow,  1862.) 
*  Acts  xxvii.  29.         f  lb.  30. 


TACT  AND  PRESENCE  OF  MIND.     13 

had  been  made,  precious  time  would  have  been 
lost,  and  probably  the  sailors  would  have  accom- 
plished their  purpose.  St.  Paul  said  nothing  to 
them  or  to  the  passengers,  but  quietly  spoke  to  his 
friend  the  military  officer  and  the  soldiers  who  had 
charge  of  him  ;  and  his  argument  was  that  which 
all  men  in  such  cases  understand  :  *  '  Except  these 
abide  in  the  ship,  ye — ye — cannot  be  saved/  The 
soldiers  before  this  time  had  found  good  reason  to 
trust  the  Apostle's  judgment;  and  the  appeal  to 
self-interest  now  was  decisive.f  With  military 
promptitude  they  cut  the  ropes,  and  the  boat  fell 
off.  Thus  the  lives  of  nearly  300  persons  were 
saved  by  the  right  words  being  said  to  the  right 
men  at  the  right  time.  J  We  may  without  irreve- 
rence go  further,  and  observe  that,  if  those  words 
had  n'ot  so  been  spoken,  if  those  ropes  had  not 
been  cut,  our  Bibles  would  have  been  destitute  of 
that  precious  group  of  Epistles  to  the  Philippians, 
Colossians,  Ephesians,  and  Philemon,  written  from 
the  imprisonment  at  Rome,  and  of  that  later  and 

*  Acts  xxvii.  31.         f  lb.  33.         J  lb.  37,  44. 


14  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

hardly  less  precious  group,  the  Pastoral  Letters  to 
Timothy  and  Titus. 

Nothing  tests  a  man's  tact  so  much  as  his  beha- 
viour on  an  emergency.  And  if  we  trace  the  nar- 
rative backwards  from  the  shipwreck,  our  eye 
presently  falls  on  another  instance  of  the  same 
kind.  Here  St.  Paul  is  a  temporary  prisoner  in 
the  barracks  of  the  tower  of  Antonia.*  The  events 
of  the  two  preceding  days  had  been  peculiarly  ex- 
citing and  irritating,  and  to  a  nervous  tempera- 
ment must  have  been  very  exhausting.  In  this 
time  of  depression  St.  Paul  had  just  had,  during 
the  nis;ht,  an  encouraging  vision. f  We  must  not 
forget  either  of  these  things.  Good  judgment  is 
not  the  less  good  judgment,  because  the  calm  mind 
rests  on  a  Divine  promise;  and  sagacious  alacrity 
is  never  more  admirable  than  when  it  shines 
steadily  in  the  gloom  of  discouraging  circum- 
stances. St.  Paul's  young  nephew  comes  to  inform 
him  of  the  conspiracy  which  threatened  his  life, 
and  which  could  only  be  baffled  by  some  prompt 

*  Acts  xxiii.  16.  f  Acts,  xxiii.  11. 


TACT    AND    PRESENCE    OF    MIND.  15 

measure  quite  out  of  the  Apostle's  own  power  to 
take.  Helpless  delay  would  have  been  fatal.  Dis- 
cussion elsewhere  might  have  revealed  the  secret, 
and  enabled  the  Jews  to  form  some  new  combina- 
tion. St.  Paul  simply  called  one  of  the  subalterns 
to  him,  and  courteously  said,*  '  Take  this  young 
man  to  the  chief  captain :  he  hath  a  certain  thing 
to  tell  him/  The  young  man  seems  to  have  had 
something  of  his  uncle's  discretion.  The  chief 
captain,  who  knew  very  well  the  difficulty  and 
delicacy  of  his  own  position  (St.  Paul  knew  it  too),f 
took  the  young  man  aside,  heard  his  story,  charged 
silence  and  secrecy,  wrote  a  letter  (not  very  candid,  J 
it  is  true,  but  very  definite  and  business-like)  to 
the  governor  of  the  province,  made  immediate  pre- 
parations for  the   prisoner's    night  journey,    and 

*  Acts  xxiii.  17..        f  lb.  22-30. 

X  No  careful  reader  can  fail  to  notice  the  ingenious  way  in  which 
Claudius  Lysias  brings  forward  two  facts,  but  in  a  false  connection 
(Acts  xxiii.  27).  It  was  true  that  the  Apostle  had  been  seized  by 
the  Jews  and  on  the  point  of  being  killed,  and  that  Claudius  Lysias 
had  rescued  him  with  his  soldiers,  and  had  learnt  that  he  was  a 
Roman  citizen  :  but,  as  Bengel  tersely  remarks,  '  Non  didicit  antea, 
sed  postea ; '  and  he  adds,  '  De  verberibus  tacet  Lysias.' 


l6  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

before  the  sun  rose  over  the  hills  of  Samaria,  gilding 
the  roofs  of  Antipatris,  and  touching  the  waves 
which  broke  on  that  level  sand,  St.  Paul  was  half- 
way on  his  road  to  Caesarea.* 

All  this  part  of  the  Apostle's  biography  is  given 
in  very  minute  detail :  hence  it  affords  our  best 
supply  of  the  examples  we  are  seeking.  Before 
proceeding  to  the  two  illustrations  which  invite  the 
most  prolonged  examination,  and  on  which  I 
would  chiefly  rest  the  case,  I  will  notice  two  other 
isolated  instances,  one  connected  with  Jerusalem, 
the  other  with  Caesarea,  and  without  any  close 
attention  to  the  order  of  time. 

The  scene  which  I    select  from  among  the  in- 
to 

cidcnts  at  Jerusalem  is  that  in  which  Paul  stood 
before  the  Sanhedrim,  and  when,  after  he  began 
by  asserting  his  unbroken  conscientious  loyalty  to 
the  God  of  the  Jews,  the  High  Priest  brutally 
ordered  him  to  be  struck  upon  the  mouth.f  That 
such  an  insult  should  have  caused  him  to  lose 
his  self-command  for  a  moment  is  not  remarkable; 

#  Acts  xxiii.  31.  f  Acts  xxiii.  2. 


TACT    AND    PRESENCE    OF    MIND.  1J 

but  that  after  this  irritation  he  should  instantly 
have  recovered,  not  only  his  temper,  but  all  his 
usual  tact  and  resource,  is  worthy  of  notice.* 
Now — seeing  that  part  of  his  judges  were  Sad- 
ducees,  and  part  of  them  Pharisees — he  cried  out 
in  the  Council,  '  I  am  a  Pharisee,  the  son  of 
Pharisees :  f  it  is  for  the  hope  and  resurrection  of 
the  dead  that  I  am  here  on  my  trial/ J  Some 
persons  are  inclined  to  blame  St.  Paul  for  what  he 
did  here.  He  is  accused  of  adopting  an  unworthy 
artifice,  that  he  might  throw  confusion  among  his 
enemies  and  secure  a  party  for  himself.  Now  I 
am  not  indeed  concerned  on  the  present  occasion 
with  defending  the  Apostle's  conduct.     I  am  only 

*  It  is  much  to  our  purpose  here  to  attend  to  two  points  marked 
by  Bishop  Sanderson  in  commenting  on  this  passage.  St.  Paul 
(in  v.  3)  addresses  as  "  brethren  "  those  who  had  rebuked  him,  and 
promptly  quotes  the  authority  of  Moses.  These  are  indications  of 
that  habit  of  mind  which  we  call  tact. 

f  The  plural  Qapio-atoov,  which  seems  undoubtedly  the  correct 
reading,  increases  the  force  of  the  statement :  and  it  may  be  remarked 
that  St.  Paul's  assertion  of  the  hereditary  Pharisaism  of  his  family 
is  as  apposite  to  his  purpose  here,  as  the  reference  to  his  teacher  Ga- 
maliel was  to  his  purpose  in  Acts  xxii.  3.     See  below,  p.  31. 

J  Acts  xxiii.  6. 

C 


l8  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

pointing  out  a  characteristic  trait  of  the  man; 
and  the  trait  is  equally  characteristic,  whether  he 
was  to  blame  or  not.*  I  venture  to  think,  how- 
ever, that  if  we  look  below  the  surface,  we  shall 
see  no  reason  for  censure,  f  but  rather  for  admira- 
tion, and  (if  it  might  be),  under  like  circumstances, 
even  for  imitation.  The  Apostle  (who  had  far 
more  at  heart  than  mere  personal  safety  or  a  mere 
party  victory)  thought  they  would  have  listened  to 
him  when  he  claimed  for  himself  the  credit  which 
he  gave  to  them,  Pharisees  and  Sadducees  alike, 
for  loyal  attachment  to  the  Jewish  religion,  and 
when  he  appealed  to  them  for  sympathy  on  this 
great  common  ground.  But  when  rudely  driven 
from  this  position,  he  rallied  immediately  and  took 
up  another.  If  conscientious  attachment  to  the 
Law  cannot  be  accepted  as  a  common  bond  of 

*  The  very  mention  by  St.  Luke  of  St.  Paul's  thought  and  feel- 
ing; on  the  occasion  implies  a  recognition  of  that  characteristic 
habit,  to  which  I  have  given  the  name  of  tact  and  presence  of  mind. 

f  It  is  worth  while  to  remark  that,  on  a  later  occasion,  he  deli- 
berately refers  to  this  appeal  (xxiv.  21)  in  such  a  way  as  to  imply 
that  it  was  not  culpable. 


TACT    AND    PRESENCE    OF    MIND.  19 

sympathy  and  a  fair  starting-point  among  them 
all,  at  least  the  Pharisees  will  agree  with  him  as 
regards  the  Resurrection.  It  was  a  narrower 
standing-ground  than  the  former,  but  it  was 
equally  honest,  and  it  was  very  adroitly  chosen.* 
For  the  time,  too,  it  was  successful,  and  possibly 
some  hearts  among  the  Pharisees  were  touched. f 
However  this  may  be,  and  however  we  may  deem 
ourselves  competent  to  sit  in  judgment  on  the 
Apostle's  conduct,  all  must  agree  in  this,  that  he 
'  walked  in  wisdom '  on  that  occasion,  and  that 
his  speech  was  '  seasoned  with  salt/ 

The  illustration  from  what  happened  at  Caesarea 
is  taken  from  his  speech  before  Felix,  in  reply  to 
what  had  been  advanced  by  Tertullus,  the  pro- 
fessional advocate  employed  by  the  Apostle's 
enemies.  Passing  by  much  besides,  that  might 
be  used  for  the  purposes  of  this  argument,!  I  turn 

*  Acts  xxiii.  9. 

t  This  too  may  be  said,  that  it  was  a  clear  gain  to  Christianity 
that  the  controversy  should  turn  very  definitely  on  the  Resurrection. 
See  Acts  xxiv.  15,  21. 

X  Among  these  may  "be  mentioned  the  complimentary  (yet  far 

C   2, 


20  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

at  once  to  two  incidental  remarks,  which  might 
escape  notice  on  a  careless  perusal,  but  which 
almost  make  us  start  when  we  read  the  speech 
closely.  He  says  in  one  part  of  this  address  that 
he  had  come  up  to  Jerusalem  'to  worship,'*  and  in 
another  part,  that  he  had  come  '  to  bring  alms  to 
his  nation,  and  offerings' f  He  put  these  two 
motives  forward,  boldly  and  without  hesitation,  as 
the  grounds  of  his  visit  to  Jerusalem.  Now,  as 
regards  the  former,  it  is  indeed  stated,  in  an  early 
part  of  the  account  of  the  voyage,  that  he  was 
anxious,  if  possible,  to  reach  that  city  by  '  Pente- 
cost ;'%  but  I  think  any  reader's  first  impression 
would  be  that  this  wish  was  connected  simply  with 
the  opportunity  a  festival  would  afford  for  com- 

from  flattering)  address  to  Felix  at  the  opening  (v.  10),  the  devia- 
tion from  his  usual  habit  of  describing  the  Jewish  people  by  the 
word  \a6s,  and  the  use  of  %0vos  instead  (ib.),  the  employment  of 
the  term  rS  waTfjdxp  ©ew,  which  would  seem  quite  natural  to  the 
Heathen  Felix,  while  doing  no  violence  to  the  speaker's  own  con- 
victions, or  the  convictions  of  his  Jewish  listeners  (v.  14),  the  ap- 
peal to  conscience,  which  a  Heathen  could  understand  as  well  as  a 
Jew  (v  16),  and  the  application  of  the  words  to  z&vos  /.lov  to  the 
C  hnslians  for  whom  the  collection  was  made. 

*  Acts  xxiv.  11.  f  Ib.  17.  %  lb.  xx.  16. 


TACT    AND    PRESENCE    OF    MIND.  21 

municating  the  Gospel  to  a  greater  number  and 
variety  of  people.  As  regards  the  latter,  we 
cannot  find  anywhere  in  the  Acts  any  previous 
trace  of  this  bringing  of  alms.  The  whole  subject 
starts  suddenly  into  view  in  an  apologetic  speech, 
and  there  is  no  allusion  elsewhere  to  anything  of 
the  kind.  I  can  well  imagine  some  persons  feeling 
(for  indeed  I  once  felt  myself)  an  uncomfortable 
sense  of  disingenuousness  here  on  the  part  of  St. 
Paul.  Such  an  impression,  however,  gradually 
vanishes  in  proportion  as  we  patiently  realize 
(what  is  to  be  gathered  also  from  all  our  other 
sources  of  information)  that  St.  Paul  was  still  a 
Jew  in  deep  hereditary  sympathy  and  affection, 
that  his  Jewish  feelings,  in  fact,  grew  even  more 
intense  in  proportion  to  the  opposition  he  was 
forced  to  offer  to  the  Jews  and  to  Judaism.  There 
is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  he  did  really  come  to 
the  Holy  City  l  to  worship' — that  among  the 
various  motives  which  drew  him  thither,  one 
earnest  desire  was  'to  stand  within  thy  gates,  O 
Jerusalem/*  with  the  old  national  feeling  that  one 

*  Ps.  exxii.  2. 


2,2  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

day  in  those  courts  was  '  better  than  a  thousand/* 
And  why  should  it  not  be  so  ?  Why  should  he 
have  thrown  off  that  passionate  love  of  the  old 
festivals  to  which  he  had  been  accustomed  since 
his  childhood  ?  Why  should  a  convert  become  a 
bigot?  It  is  only  the  narrowness  of  our  party- 
spirit  which  leads  us  to  suppose  that  a  love  of 
Jewish  ceremonial  and  utmost  purity  of  Christian 
doctrine  could  not  possibly  co-exist.  The  point 
before  us  is,  that  among  the  various  things  which 
St.  Paul  might  have  mentioned  in  regard  to  this 
coming  to  Jerusalem,  he  chooses  that  one  which 
tells  best  on  the  audience,  while  he  throws  all 
others  into  the  background.  So  with  regard  to 
the  other  phrase.  The  '  worship '  may  probably 
imply  the  '  offerings ; '  and  thus  one  part  of  the 
apparent  difficulty  may  easily  be  dismissed.  And 
as  to  these  c  alms  to  his  nation/  we  have  only  to 
consult  the  Epistles  contemporaneous  with  his 
recent  journey,  to  learn  that  this  collection  for  the 
poor  Hebrew  Christians  in  Judaea  was  one  of  his 

*  Ps.  lxxxiv.  io. 


TACT  AND  PRESENCE  OF  MIND.     23 


most  prominent  occupations  at  this  time,  and  that 
it  engaged  his  feelings  with  the  utmost  intensity, 
for  he  hoped  thereby  to  win  the  confidence  of  the 
Jews  while  asserting  the  liberty  of  the  Gentiles.* 
This  single  sentence — used  by  St.  Paul,  on  an 
emergency,  in  justification  of  himself — is  one  of 
the  most  curious  of  those  half-concealed  links 
which  bind  together  the  Acts  and  Epistles,  re- 
moving at  a  glance,  and  as  if  by  accident,  the 
imputation  of  ciiscrepancy.f  But  it  is  not  less 
remarkable,  as  supplying  an  instance  of  that 
versatile  tact  which  never  seemed  to  forsake  this 
Jewish  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles.  Here  he  is  stand- 
ing before  a  Heathen  judge,  but  with  Jews  for  his 
accusers.  Does  he  not  show,  in  his  recollection  of 
all  the  circumstances  of  his  position,  that  he  was 
in  the  habit  of  walking;  wisely  '  toward  them  that 
are  without/1  and  that  he  well  knew  'how  to 
answer  every  man  ? ; 

*  See  1  Cor.  (written  at  Ephesus)  xvi.  1-4;  2  Cor.  (written  in. 
Macedonia)  \iii.  ix.  ;  Rom.  (written  at  Corinth)  xv.  25-33. 

*T  The  remarks  of  Paley  at  the  opening  of  the  '  Horse  Paulina',' 
(Rom.  No.  1)  are  familiar  to  all ;  but>  although  familiar,  they  are 
not  obsolete. 


24  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

The  examples  which  I  have  hitherto  adduced 
have  been  isolated,  and,  so  to  speak,  casual  in- 
stances. But,  as  I  have  said,  the  same  period  of 
St.  Paul's  life  supplies  illustrations  presenting  the 
same  feature  on  a  larger  scale,  and  inviting  a 
more  elaborate  treatment.  In  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  there  are  three  accounts  of  St.  Paul's 
conversion.  We  have  St.  Luke's  calm  and 
simple  story/''  and  two  narratives  given  by  the 
Apostle  himself  under  Apologetic  conditions — ■ 
one  addressed  to  the  mob  in  the  Temple-court,  at 
Jerusalem, f  the  other  to  Festus  and  Agrippa,  in 
the  audience-chamber  at  Caesarea.J  Our  general 
course,  and  our  natural  course,  in  studying  St. 
Paul's  biography,  is  to  combine  these  three 
accounts,  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  a  lull 
and  complete  history  of  this  momentous  trans- 
action. Here  we  are  required  rather  to  separate 
these  narratives,  that  we  may  analyse  those 
features  of  personal  character  which  two  of  them 
display. § 

*   Acts  ix.  f  lb.  xxii.         J  lb.  xxv 

§  I  am  not  aware  that  these  two  speeches  have  ever  been  fully 


TACT  AND  PRESENCE  OF  MIND.    2,$ 

As  to  the  narratives  in  the  twenty-second  and 
twenty-sixth  chapters,  they  are  both  (as  I  have 
said)  'defences/*  So  far  they  are  similar  to  one 
another  and  broadly  distinguished  from  the  ac- 
count in  the  ninth  chapter.  Hence  they  have 
some  features  in  common  as  opposed  to  that. 
Thus  to  notice  only  one  insertion  and  one  omis- 
sion. Both  the  later  accounts  state  that  the 
miraculous  light  was  at  midday. f     PauPs  purpose 

and  minutely  examined  from  the  point  of  view  here  taken.  There 
are  a  few  remarks  to  our  purpose  in  the  Commentaries  of  Al- 
ford,  Humphry,  and  Hackett ;  and  reference  must  be  made  espe- 
cially to  the  excellent  but  too  brief  discussion  of  Professor  Birks,  in 
the  'Horae  Apostolicae'  (the  appendix  to  his  edition  of  the'Horae 
Paulinae'),  pp.  324-330. 

*  St.  Paul  himself  modestly  and  discreetly  calls  them  both  airoXoyicu. 
Not  that  we  are  to  forget  that  St.  Paul  had  a  higher  end  in  view,  on 
both  occasions,  than  any  mere  defence  of  himself.  But  this  mode  of 
speaking  is  in  fact  an  illustration  of  the  very  point  of  character  we 
are  here  considering. 

f  Tlepl  /nearm^piau,  xxii.  6  ;  and  rather  more  strongly,  -rj/xepas 
uearjs,  xxvi.  13  ;  where  he  also  adds,  virep  tt]v  XafiirporriTa  too 
7}\'wv.  We  must  notice,  too,  in  xxii.  6,  the  intensifying  phrase  <pws 
iKavov,'  and  the  further  reference  below  to  the  blinding  effect  of  the 
light:  d'S  ovk  eW/3\e7roj/  airb  tt\s  86£ris  rov  <pa)Tos  ifceivov,  V.  n. 
As  Professor  Birks  remarks  (p.  328),  he  mentions  not  only  the  fact 
but  the  cause  of  his  blindness. 


26  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

evidently  is  to  cail  attention  to  the  wonder,  and  to 
leave  no  doubt  of  the  nature  of  what  occurred  on 
the  road  to  Damascus.*  Luke  simply  mentions 
the  light. f  It  is  not  his  habit  to  make  the  most  of 
a  miracle.  J  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  his  habit  to 
notice  very  exactly  any  medical  symptoms^  in  the 
nature  of  an  illness  or  the  process  of  a  bodily 
cure.  He  therefore  mentions  '  the  falling,  as  it 
were,  of  scales3  from  the  eves,  of  which  Paul 
himself  says  nothing.**  For  Paul  to  have  referred 
to  this  (independently  of  its  being  the  natural 
remark  rather  of  a  bystander-j-f)   would  have  been 

*  Acts  xxvi.  13.         f  lb.  xxii.  6.  X  lb.  ix.  9. 

§  See  '  The  Companions  of  St.  Paul : '  St.  Luke. 

||  lb.  18. 

**  With  this  we  must  class  two  other  peculiarities  found  only  in 
the  narrative  of  ch.  ix.  viz.,  the  avewy/jLevow  twv  b<pQa\jxG:v,  v.  8, 
and  the  Xa/3wv  Tpo(pr]v  eVurxucrei/,  v.  19.  Compare  Luke  viii.  55 
Acts  xxvii.  34. 

ft  Not  that  we  need  suppose  St.  Luke  to  have  been  present  at 
Damascus  or  on  the  journey  at  the  time  of  the  conversion.  He  and 
St.  Paul  must  often  have  spoken  together  on  the  details  of  that  mar- 
vellous event,  especially  if  the  Apostle's  health  was  professionally  an 
object  of  the  Evangelist's  care,  it  seems  probable  on  comparing  Gal. 
iv.  13  with  Acts  xvi.  10,  and  on  considering  Col.  iv.  14.  See  Lec- 
ures  II.  and  V. 


TACT  AND  PRESENCE  OF  MIND.    2J 


beside  his  purpose,  and  would  probably  have  led 
to  minute  questions,  disturbing  the  course  of 
thought  in  those  who  were  listening.  Other  cases 
of  omission  and  insertion  could  easily  be  enume- 
rated on  comparing  the  two  defences  on  the  one 
hand  with  Luke's  single  history  on  the  other.* 
But  our  main  business  here  is  to  take  each  defence 
separately,  and  to  mark  the  consummate  judg- 
ment with  which  it  was  made  to  fit  its  special 
occasion. 

No  long  introduction  is  required  to  bring  back 
the  first  of  these  scenes  to  recollection.      St.  Paul 

*  As  to  information  which  is  found  in  Acts  xxii.  and  xxvi.,  and 
not  contained  in  the  direct  narrative,  there  is  nothing  in  ch.  ix.  or 
previously,  concerning  Paul's  early  life  as  a  strict  Jewish  zealot  and 
Pharisee.  But,  in  an  apologetic  speech,  the  mention  of  this  was  the 
necessary  background  and  shade  for  bringing  forward  his  Christi- 
anity into  stronger  light  on  the  pieture.  As  to  what  is  found,  vice 
vend,  in  ch.  ix.,  and  not  noticed  in  the  other  chapters,  we  see  that 
the  exact  topographical  details  of  the  conversion — '  the  house  of 
Judas' — 'the  Straight  Street' — would  have  been  irrelevant  there. 
Nor  does  St.  Paul  himself  mention  the  '  three  days'  of  fasting,  peni- 
tence, and  of  prayer.  Again,  in  regard  to  Ananias,  there  were  very 
good  reasons,  as  we  shall  see  below,  why  he  was  not  mentioned  at  all 
in  ch.  xxvi.,  and  why  the  vision  which  he  himself  had  (ix.  10-16) 
was  not  brought  forward  in  ch.  xxii.     See  pp.  37  and  49. 


28  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

has  been  violently  seized  in  the  Temple  on  a  false 
accusation  of  having  taken  Greeks  within  the 
Holy  precincts.  A  sudden  rush  of  soldiers  from 
the  tower  of  Antonia  rescues  him.  The  express 
intention  of  the  Jews  was  to  murder  him  ;*  and 
many  blows  had  already  been  inflicted.  In  furi- 
ous disappointment  they  now  press  and  crowd  on 
the  stairs,  lifting  the  Apostle  off  his  feet  as  the 
soldiers  bear  him  upwards.  It  is  just  at  such  a 
time  as  this,  when,  deafened  by  the  uproar,  con- 
fused by  the  crush,  sickened  and  stunned  with 
pain,  disturbed  by  the  instinctive  fear  of  death, f 
most  men  would  lose  their  presence  of  mind,  and, 
whatever  might  come  afterwards,  would  be  glad 
of  a  moment's  safety  and  shelter — it  is  just  here 
that  St.  Paul  gives  a  most  signal  proof  of  his 
power  of  dealing  wisely  with  a  difficulty.  The 
'time'    is  as   short  as  possible,   but  he  promptly 

*  Acts  xxi.  31-35. 

f  It  must  be  borne  in  mind,  however,  that  St.  Paul  was  in  no 
real  danger,  as  regarded  his  life,  from  the  time  when  he  was  under 
the  care  of  the  Roman  soldiers.  It  is  the  sudden  rally  after  a  narrow 
escape,  on  which  stress  is  here  laid. 


TACT  AND  PRESENCE  OF  MIND.     20, 

'redeems'  it.  Just  at  the  top  of  the  stairs — at 
the  very  entrance  to  the  barracks — he  addresses  a 
few  rapid  but  respectful  words  to  the  officer.*  He 
speaks  in  Greek. f  This  attracts  the  officer's  atten- 
tion. Paul  asks  for  leave  to  speak  to  the  people. 
The  officer  has  hardly  time  to  reflect — and,  in  his 
perplexity  and  surprise,  he  consents. 

Having  thus  obtained  permission,  the  Apostle 
turns  round  on  the  instant  and  speaks  to  the 
crowd  below — not  in  Greek,  which  most  of  them 
would  have  understood,  but  in  Hebrew.  There 
is  something  in  this  quick  and  ready  turn  from 
one  language  to  another  which  itself  deserves 
remark.  He  had  good  reason  to  expect  the 
silence  which  followed. J     But  observe  how  he  be- 

*  An  ingenious  critic  might  ask  why  St.  Paul  did  not  immedi- 
ately claim  his  right  of  Roman  citizenship.  The  answer  is  that  his 
heart  was  set  on  securing,  not  his  own  personal  safety  and  honour, 
but  an  opportunity  of  persuading  his  countrymen  to  accept  the 
Gospel. — He  did  claim  his  political  rights  afterwards  (Acts  xxii.  25), 
and  his  choice  of  the  occasion  was  an  instance  of  his  tact. 

f  Acts  xxi.  37-40. 

X  Some  commentators  see  a  miraculous  element  in  this  silence. 
Without  presuming  to  deny  that  there  may  be  some  truth  in  this, 


30  THE    CHARACTER     OF    ST    PAUL. 

gins.*  He  uses  the  very  words  he  had  just  addressed 
to  the  chief  captain,  but  instantly  gives  them  a  new 
and  adroit  turn — a  turn  as  sudden  as  the  change  of 
language  in  which  he  spoke.  To  him  he  had  said 
in  Greek — '  I  am  a  Jew,  born  at  Tarsus  in  Cilicia,f 
and  Tarsus  is  no  contemptible  city/ %  To  his 
countrymen  he  says  in  Hebrew — '  I  am  a  Jew, 
born  indeed  at  Tarsus,  but  nurtured  and  educated 
in  this  city.  '§It  is  surprising  how  differently  the  same 
words  may  sound  when  the  emphasis  is  changed. 
Tarsus  here  falls  into  the  background  and  Jeru- 
salem fills  the  view ;  and  so  we  shall  observe 
throughout  the  speech,  the  stress  is  on  that  holy 
word,  that  holy  place,  Jerusalem. 

I  think  we  gain  something  in  regard  to  the  consistency  of  St.  Paul's 
character,  and  the  literal  reality  of  the  facts,  by  making  much  of  the 
natural  side  of  the  transaction. 

*  We  should  not  fail  to  mark  the  conciliatory  and  respectful 
phrase  (avdpes  ade\<pol  nal  irxrepes)  with  which  he  opens  his 
speech. 

f  Acts  xxi.  39.         X  lb-  xxi'-  3- 

§  Stier  notices  (pp.  151  and  164),  that  while,  in  speaking  to  the 
military  officer,  St.  Paid  modestly  calls  himself  audpcoiros  'lovZouos 
(xxi.  30),  here  he  says,  with  a  certain  dignity  and  independence, 
av)]p  'Ioi/5«ros  (xxii.  3),  thus  making  himself  one  of  the  avdpes 
(ver.  1 )  whom  he  is  addressing. 


TACT    AND    PRESENCE    OF    MIND.  31 

Thus  he  passes  on,  strongly  and  yet  easily  mark- 
ing each  point  that  would  tend  to  persuade,  and 
leaving  out  all  that  was  irrelevant.  He  was 
brought  up  fat  the  feet  of  Gamaliel/  Thus  he 
hints  that  he  was  a  Pharisee ;  but  yet  how 
delicately !  There  might  have  been  Sadducees 
present,  who  would  have  taken  offence  at  any 
stronger  assertion.  The  Law,  in  which  he  had 
been  so  strictly  trained,*  he  calls  by  that  endearing 
term,  '  the  Law  of  the  Fathers/f  And  as  to  his 
early  zcal%  in  the  Law,  he  says,  using  a  most  con- 
ciliatory phrase,  'as  ye  all  are  this  day/  Just  as 
when  he  spoke  to  the  Athenians  §   of  their  care 

*  Acts  xxii.  3. 

f  In  the  words  rov  irarpov  vSjxwov  (the  translation  of  the  Hebrew 
phrase  used  by  the  Apostle)  there  is  a  different  shade  of  meaning 
from  the  words  tw  ivncTpca  Qew<3,  which  (speaking  Greek)  he  ad- 
dressed to  Felix,  Acts  xxiv.  14;  see  p.  15,71.  In  his  mind  there 
would  simply  be  the  thought  of  a  national  divinity.  They  would 
see  in  such  a  phrase  a  reference  to  the  '  God  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and 
Jacob.' 

+  Z7]Awt?V  virapxoov  rov  QeoC,  xxii.  3 — the  very  words  used  in 
xxi.  20,  (flXcoTui  rov  vojjlov  virapxavai. 

§  See  below,  p.  64  and  n.  Grotius  (quoted  by  Dean  Alford  on 
2  Cor.  viii.  7)  expresses  the  matter  well  in  two  or  three  words  : 
1  Non  ignoravit  Paulus  artem  rhetorum,  movere  laudando.' 


32  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

for  religion,  or  began  his  first  and  severe  letter  to 
the  Corinthians  by  commending  some  of  their 
spiritual  attainments,  so  on  this  occasion  he  gives 
his  hearers  credit  for  as  much  as  was  honestly 
possible.* 

Proceeding  now  to  his  persecution  of  the 
Christians  and  his  miraculous  conversion  (the 
crowd  meanwhile  listening  breathless,  but  only 
just  kept  at  bay),f  he  does  not  simply  state,  as 
St.  Luke  does,  that  he  asked  for  letters  to  Damas- 
cus, but  that  he  obtained  them,  and  that  not  only 

*  Nothing  is  more  characteristic  of  St.  Paul  than  the  habit  of  giving 
credit  for  something  to  those  whom  he  wishes  to  conciliate.  The 
Second  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  which  reveals  more  than  any- 
other  epistle  of  his  habitual  feelings  and  impulses,  supplies  several 
examples.  See,  for  instance,  the  assumption  that  they  love  him 
and  are  proud  of  him  (i.  14;  viii.  7.) 

t  It  is  worth  while  to  notice,  as  a  help  to  the  realization  of  the 
scene,  that  while  the  Apostle  was  speaking,  the  Roman  officer  and 
soldiers  probably  did  not  understand  a  word  of  what  he  was  saying. 
So  far  the  speech  was,  as  it  were,  a  confidential  communication  of 
St.  Paul  to  his  countrymen.  This  circumstance  would  almost  give 
an  impression  of  humour  to  the  scene,  were  it  not  that  the  transac- 
tion was  full  of  intense  and  solemn  earnestness,  and  that  souls  were 
at  stake. 


£ 


TACT    AND    PRESENCE    OF    MIND.  ^ 


from  the  High  Priest,  but  also  (here  again  adding 
to  St.  Luke)  from  '  the  whole  body  of  the  elders/ 
some  of  whom  were  probably  present.*  He 
openly  appeals  to  their  evidence,  and  shelters  this 
part  of  the  transaction  under  the  cover  of  their 
authority. t  And  then  how  does  he  describe  those 
Jews  at  Damascus,  to  whom  the  letters  were 
addressed,  those  unconverted  Jews  ?  He  calls 
them  f  brethren/  a  name  which  in  this  speech  he 
never  applies  to  the  Christians.  He  adroitly  looks 
back  at  the  transaction  from  the  point  of  view  from 
which  his  hearers  would  necessarily    regard    it. J 

*  Acts  xxii.  5. 

f  St.  Luke,  following  the  course  of  the  personal  narrative,  natu- 
rally points  to  St.  Paul's  action  in  the  matter :  irpoaeXdwv  ra 
apx^pe?,  yriicraTo  irap  avrov  eiricrroXas  els  Aa^aaKbu  irpbs  ras 
av v ay cay as  (ix.  1,  2),  whereas  here  it  is  Trap1  wv  Kxl  eiritfroXas 
Se^duevos  irpbs  robs  adeXcpobs  els  Aafxacricbv  eitopevofA-qv  (xxii.  5), 
where  aZeXcpobs  is  a  warmer  expression  than  avvayxyas. 

X  He  makes  their  case  his  own,  as  afterwards  (xxiii.  6)  in  dealing 
with  the  Pharisees.  He  puts  himself,  as  we  may  say,  in  the  same 
rank  and  file  with  them.  But  we  must  beware  of  imagining  for  a 
moment  that  he  expresses  wha*  he  does  not  feel.  Not  only  does  he 
not  forget,  as  Dr.  Meyer  says,  '  seinen  vorchristlichen  Standpunkt,' 
but  his  heart  is  full  of  intense  sympathy  with  his  fellow  Jews  ;  and 


34  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

Ananias,,*  again,  the  Christian  Ananias,^  who 
was  employed  to  restore  his  sight  and  bap- 
tize him  and  renew  his  commission,  is  not 
called  '  a  brother '  (or  even  c  a  disciple/  as  in 
St.  Luke's  accountj),  but  he  is  carefully  described 
as  '  a  man  pious  according  to  the  Jewish  Law,3  and 
not  only  so,  but  as  having  the  favourable  testi- 
mony of  '  all  the  Jews  at  Damascus/  And  mark 
how  Ananias  is  represented  as  beginning  his 
speech  to  Saul,  when  he  visits  him  in  his  blind- 
ness. He  addresses  him  in  Hebrew, §  and  says, 
'  The  God  of  our  Fathers  hath    chosen    thee ' — 

it  is  only  the  urgency  of  the  occasion  which  hinders  him  from  fully 
expressing  this.  See  how  he  writes  (Rom.  ix.  1-5)  when  his  feel- 
ings have  space  to  flow  freely. 

*  It  is  very  observable  that  the  direct  communication  from  Hea- 
ven is  condensed  here  within  the  narrowest  limits,  and  that  the  com- 
mission to  Paul  i's  placed  as  much  as  possible  in  the  mouth  of  Ana- 
nias. Thus  the  communication  made  by  Ananias  is  fuller  here  than 
in  ch.  ix.,  in  proportion  as  the  words  spoken  by  Jesus  are  given 
more  briefly.     There  were  good  reasons  for  this.     See  also  p.  40. 

f  Acts  xxii.  12. 

X  In  consistency  with  all  this  the  utmost  care  is  exercised  to 
avoid  any  designation  of  the  Christians.  The  phrases  used  are  quite 
negative. 

§  This  we  see  from  the  form  2aoi>A  &5eA0e  here  (xxii.  13),  and 
in  ix.    1  7.     There  it  is  still   moie  marked,  because  throughout  St. 


TACT    AND    PRESENCE    OF    MIND.  %$ 

chosen — to  do  what  ?  Ah  !  here  St.  Paul  is 
approaching  the  dangerous  point — the  mission  to 
the  Gentiles.  But  how  lightly  and  skilfully  he 
touches  it !  The  offensive  word  is  not  used. 
( He  hath  chosen  thee  to  be  His  witness  unto  all 
men.'*  All  the  truth  is  here,  but  only  in  the  form 
of  a  hint.  And  observe,  too,  how  the  name  of 
Jesus  is  avoided.  In  the  whole  address  it  occurs 
only  once,  and  then  at  a  place  where  it  could  not 
be  omitted.  St.  Paul  uses  merely  a  pronoun,f 
where  we  should  expect  an  exact  designation. 
Ananias,  addressing  Said,  speaks  of  the  Saviour 
as  '  the  Just  One.'%  He  speaks,  it  is  true,  in  the 
same  context,  of   c  calling   on   the  name    of   the 

Luke's  general  narrative  the  name  is  SavAos.  In  connection  with 
this,  it  is  interesting  to  notice  that  in  all  the  three  narratives  the 
words  from  Heaven  are  in  the  Hebrew  form  SaouA,  SaouA,  thus 
confirming  (but  most  incidentally  and  undesignedly)  the  fact  ex- 
pressly stated,  where  the  Apostle  was  speaking  Greek  (xxvi.  14), 
that  the  words  were  7r?7  'E/3pcu'5i  StaAe/crw.  Here  (xxii.)  he  is  speak- 
ing in  Hebrew ;  and  the  occurrence  of  such  a  comment  would  be 
quite  out  of  place.  It  is  worth  while  to  add  that  in  xxvi.  the 
deck  form  'Iepoo^Au/xa  is  consistently  used,  whereas  elsewhere 
the  name  is  often  'IepoucraAT^u.. 

*  Acts  xxii.  14-15.         t  Acts  xxii.  17,  18.         JActs  xxii.  14. 

D  2 


$6  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

Lord/*  But,  however  much  is  meant  in  this 
phrase  (and  all  Christianity  is  in  the  phrasef),  the 
name  is  not  used. 

It  is  very  important,  in  analysing  this  speech 
for  our  present  purpose,  to  observe  not  only  what 
Paul  savs,  but  what  he  omits. J  He  makes  no 
mention  of  his  journey  to  Arabia. §  When  he 
wrote  to  the  Galatians,  that  fact  was  of  conse- 
quence to  his  argument :  here  it  is  of  no  mo- 
ment. ||       Dwelling    as    he     docs    very     fully    on 

*  Acts  xxii.  1 6. 

f  The  theological  importance  of  such  passages  as  this,  and  Acts  ii 
21,  and  Rom.  x.  12,  compared  with  Joel  ii.  32,  and  other  places 
where  the  same  verb  is  used  in  the  LXX.,  need  only  be  mentioned. 

I  Two  additions  in  the  speech  call  for  a  remark.  Here  only 
(xxii.  10)  is  the  question  recorded  ri  7roir)(Ta>,  Kvpie;  (for  the  corre- 
sponding words  in  ix.  6  are  spurious).  Why  is  this  ?  Perhaps  to 
point  as  definitely  as  possible  to  Ananias,  who  is  presently  to  be 
mentioned.  Again,  in  xxii.  9,  Paul  says  of  his  companions  rr\v 
(pwwqv  ovk  r)Kovaav  too  AaXojvTos  fxoi,  words  which  have  sometimes 
been  very  unfairly  used  as  antagonistic  to  what  is  said  in  ix.  7. 
They  saw  the  light  and  heard  the  sound ;  but  no  articulate  voice 
reached  the  ir  souls.  The  turn  of  St.  Paul's  phrase  might  well  have 
reference  to  the  possible  presence  of  some  who  had  been  with  him 
on  that  journey,  or  of  some  who  had  heard  the  history  from  his 
actual  companions. 

§   Gal.  i.  17. 

II  Similarl/  the  mention  of  the  mode  of  escape  from  Damascus  is 


TACT    AND    PRESENCE    OF    MIND.  37 

Ananias,  and  making  much  use  of  his  important 
sanction,  he  yet  says  nothing  of  the  vision  seen 
by  Ananias.  He  could  not  himself  have  been  a 
witness  of  that  vision,  and  therefore  such  a  refe- 
rence would  have  been  impolitic.  Moreover,  it 
would  have  delayed  the  rapid  progress  of  the 
narrative.  But  especially,  as  will  readily  be  re- 
membered, he  must  thus  have  used  expressions 
very  much  adapted  to  irritate  the  Jewish   mob.* 

fo  the  purpose  in  2  Cor.  xi.  32,  33  ;  for  the  Apostle  wishes  to  record 
some  circumstances  of  humiliation.  Such  a  reference  on  the  stairs 
of  the  Temple  could  have  served  no  good  end. 

*  Especially  the  expressions  to7s  ayiois  aov  (ix.  13),  and  ivwiriot/ 
idvuv  (ver.  15),  in  the  words  addressed  by  Jesus  to  Ananias,  and 
6  Kvpios  Irjcrois,  in  the  words  of  Ananias  to  Saul  (ver.  17).  At  the 
same  time,  if  St.  Paul's  speech  on  the  stairs  is  closely  considered,  it 
would  be  seen  to  imply  some  kind  of  divine  communication  to 
Ananias,  and  also  a  miraculous  cure  of  the  blindness.  Whatever  is 
peculiar  to  the  vision  of  Ananias  is  of  course  only  to  be  learnt  from 
ch»  ix. ;  e.g.  the  important  Ihov  npocrevx^Tai.  See  also  above,  p.  20, 
n.  Again  :  '  the  laying  on  of  hands,'  is  only  mentioned  there. 
But,  on  the  other  side,  the  '  tvash  away  thy  sins,'  with  its  con- 
fession of  the  guilt  involved  in  persecuting  Christians  (see  Stier, 
p.  189),  and  its  warning  to  those  who  were  similarly  sinning  now 
and  its  important  doctrinal  statement  concerning  baptism,  is  found 
only  here.  And  how  vivid  is  the  personal  reminiscence  contained 
in  iiriaTas  and  avrij  rfj  lipaavefSKetya  els  aurou,  xxii.  13  !    Another 


38  THE    CHARACTER    OF     ST    PAUL. 


Nor  does  he  refer  to  what  he  did  at  Damascus 
after  his  conversion.  To  have  alluded  to  this 
might  have  called  up  some  reminiscences  of  the 
persecution  he  endured  in  that  city  from  the  Jews: 
thus  the  allusion  might  haveseemed  like  a  complaint. 
The  generous  tone*  is  similar  to  that  at  Rome 
on  a  later  and  calmer  occasion  :  (  Not  that  I  have 
ought  to  accuse  my  nation  of.-f-'  Besides  this,  the 
course  of  his  argument  urges  him  in  all  haste  back 
to  Jerusalem,  and  to  the  recounting  of  what  took 
place  there  immediately  on  his  return.  Here  it 
was,  in  the  Holy  City,  and  not  only  in  the  city, 
but    in   the    Temple — the    very    sacred    precincts 

mark  of  vividness  may  here  be  noticed.  It  was  remarked  above  (p. 
27,  «.),  that  the  minute  topography  connected  with  the  cure  of 
Paul's  blindness,  and  his  baptism,  is  omitted:  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  city  where  the  conversion  occurred  is  marked  as  sharply 
as  possible.  In  ix.  6,  it  is  eureAfle  as  Trjv  iroXiv.  In  xxii.  10  it  is 
iropzvov  ejy  Aa/j.acncui'.  See  also  5,  6,  and  11.  Damascus  is  men- 
tioned four  times  in  this  speech,  only  twice  in  the  much  lon0er 
speech  at  Caesarea.     Compare  2  Cor.  xi.  $z  ;  Gal.  1  17. 

*  This  spirit  of  forbearance  will  come  under  consideration  in  Lec- 
tures II.  and  III.  Keen  as  was  his  sense  of  injury,  nothing  was  more 
alien  from  St.  Paul's  mind  than  resentment. 

f  Acts  xxviii.  19. 


TACT    AND    PRESENCE    OF    MIND.  39 

within  which  they  were  now  listening — and  not 
only  so,  but  when  he  was  praying  there — here  and 
when  so  occupied — he  had  a  vision  and  a  dialogue 
with  the  Almighty ;  and  all  according  to  the  re- 
cognized type  of  the  Old  Testament  miracles,  and 
the  communications  from  heaven  to  the  ancient 
worthies. 

Now  all  this  information  concerning  the  vision 
in  the  Temple  we  should  never  have  obtained  but 
for  the  apologetic  requirements  of  the  speech  before 
us.  It  helps  us  to  complete  the  history  of  this 
part  of  the  Apostle's  life,  and  to  see  the  secret 
springs  which  directed  his  course  from  Jerusalem  to 
Tarsus.*  The  narrative  in  the  Acts  tells  us  that  he 
was  driven  away  by  persecution.  But  to  have  men- 
tioned this  would  have  been  unwise.  There  might 
have  been  some  present  who  conspired  to  kill  him 
on  that  occasion ;  and  no  man  likes  to  be  reminded 
of  his  crimes.  Both  causes  for  the  journey  were 
true.  Paul's  tact  was  shown  in  omitting;  what 
would  irritate,  and  bringing  forward  what  had  a 

*  Acts  ix.  29,  30. 


40  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

tendency  to  persuade.*  But  observe  one  thing 
further  in  regard  to  this  vision.  He  is  now  close 
to  the  dangerous  ground  *on  which  he  must  tread 
at  last :  but  he  has  been  approaching  it  under  the 
shelter  of  what  (in  their  eyes)  must  have  been  the 
highest  sanction.  He  did  not  quote  the  commis- 
sion as  given  by  Jesus  Himself  on  the  road  to 
Damascus. f  What  was  said  even  by  Ananias 
was  only  adduced  as  a  hint.J  He  reserves  it  till 
he  has  shown  how  he  longed  to  stay  at  Jerusalem, 
and  till  he  has  intensified  the  whole  matter  by 
alluding  to  the  death  of  Stephen,  in  which  he 
himself  took  a  memorable  part.§  Then  it  is  that 
he  says  that  a  Divine  voice  in  the  Jewish  Temple 
spake  thus:  '  I  will  send  thee  far  off  to  the 
Gentiles/ 

We    all    know  the    result.     A    furious    uproar 

*  A  similar  instance  of  two  separately-mentioned  moving  causes 
for  a  journey  is  to  be  found  in  connection  with  the  Council  of  Jeru- 
salem. In  Acts  xv.  z,  we  have  the  outward  motive  arising  from  cir- 
cumstances ;  in  Gal.  ii.  2,  the  inward  mission  'by  revelation.'  See 
'Life  and  Epistles,'  vol.  i.  pp.  254,  255. 

+  See  below,  p.  36.         X  See  p.  26.  §   Acts  xxii.  21. 


TACT    AND    PRESENCE    OF    MIND.  41 

drowned  the  speaker's  voice,  and  they  would  hear 
him  no  longer.  This  is  nothing  to  our  argument. 
The  Apostle's  presence  of  mind  was  so  far  success- 
ful that,  by  means  of  it,  he  was  able  to  say  more 
than  he  could  have  done  by  any  other  method.  A 
pulpit  was,  as  it  were,  extemporised  for  him  here 
on  the  stairs  of  the  Temple,  such  as  he  never  could 
have  found  by  his  own  contrivance,  for  pressing  on 
his  countrymen  the  facts  and  lessons  of  the  Con- 
version. And  again  soon  afterwards,  in  the  midst 
of  continued  suffering,  Divine  Providence  gave 
him  an  opportunity  of  bringing  similar  testimony 
before  the  chief  official  people  of  the  land.  To 
that  other  address  I  now  proceed.  Of  that  which 
we  are  leaving  I  will  simply  add  that  I  think  no 
one  who  reads  this  speech  carefully  and  patiently, 
will  say  that  the  preceding  criticism  is  strained,  or 
that  the  Apostle's  words  were  not  adapted,  with 
eminent  skill,  to  the  case  in  hand.  Nor  can  I 
conceive  any  one,  in  the  calm  possession  of  a 
candid  judgment,  supposing  that  the  speech  was 
forged  to  fit  an  imaginary  scene,  while  certainly 


42  THE     CHARACTER     OF     ST     PAUL. 

the  narrative  is  far  too  minutely  exact  to  be  derived 
from  any  mythical  or  accidental  origin. 

On  the  next  occasion  when  Paul  recounts  his 
Conversion,  he  is  before  a  very  different  audience ; 
and  his  aim  is  correspondingly  different,  though 
(as  we  shall  see)  his  judgment  and  practical  wisdom 
are  the  same.*  Surrounded  by  the  civil  and  mili- 
tary state  of  the  Governor,  and  with  royal  visitors, 
professing  the  Jewish  religion,  seated  in  the  hall 
with  Festus — here  the  Apostle  has  a  freer  range. 
It  is  no  scene  of  violent  excitement.  It  is  indeed 
a  precious  opportunity  to  be  wisely  c  redeemed/ 
He  is  doubtless  in  a  difficult  position;  for  his 
audience  is  mixed.  But  he  does  not  speak  under 
constraint,  and  with  the  fear  at  every  moment  of 
a  violent  interruption.  It  is  true,  too,  that  the 
chain  is  on  the  wrist  of  that  handf   which   he 

*  Or  rather,  we  ought  to  say  that  his  aim  was  identical  (for  the 
unvarying  effort  of  his  life  was- to  win  souls  to  Christ),  but  that  his 
mode  of  presenting  the  facts  was  varied. 

f  We  may  notice,  as  a  contrast  in  harmony  with  the  two  contrasted 
occasions,  the  difference  between  KaTeVetcre  rfj  xe*P'>  Acts  xxi.  40, 
and  £ kt tiv as  T7]v  xe'Pa>  xxvi.  1.     Theie  may  have  been  something 


TACT    AND    PRESENCE    OF    MIND.  43 

stretches  out  while  he  speaks.  He  has  probably 
also  suffered  in  health,*  for  his  detention  at 
Csesarea  has  lasted  nearly  two  years. f  But  he  has 
for  some  time  been  under  the  calm  protection  of 
the  Roman  law,  for  already  he  has  appealed  to  the 
Emperor.  J  Thus,  though  here  too  he  is  making  a 
defence, §  he  can  safely  take  a  higher  and  a  more 
distinctively  Evangelical  ground.  Something  was 
due  to  the  fact  that  here  the  doctrine  of  the  Re- 
surrection is  the  turning  point,  as  at  Jerusalem  it 
was  the  Mission  to  the  Gentiles;  but  there  was 
more  in  the  mere  circumstances  of  the  occasion, 
which  gave  to  the  Apostle  a  wide  scope,  that  had 
been  denied  on  the  stairs  of  the  Temple.  Thus  if 
Luke's  plain  narrative  is  a  colourless  sketch  of  the 
Conversion,  and  the  account  given  by  Paul  himself 

of  the  same  characteristic  gesture  in  both  cases  ;  but  there  is  more 
urgency  in  the  former  (to  say  nothing  of  the  Kara),  more  composure 
in  the  latter.     See  also  /j.aKpo6v/.MS,  xxvi.  3. 

*  Dr.  Beets  calls  attention  here  to  the  contrast  between  Paul,  poor 
and  mean  in  appearance,  and  the  robust  soldier  to  whom  he  was 
chained. — Pp.  235,  236. 

f  Acts  xxiv.  2;.         +  lb.  xxv.  12. 
■  §  See  above,  p.  25,  n. 


44  THE     CHARACTER     OF     ST     PAUL. 

on  the  last  occasion  was  a  Jewish  picture  of  the 
same  event,  in  that  which  is  before  us  all  the 
Christian  features  are  marked  as  strongly  as  pos- 
sible. 

We  see  this  difference  at  the  outset.  Addressing 
Agrippa,  he  says,  without  hesitation,  that  '  Jews' 
are  his  accusers;  and  he  calls  them  Jews,  as  if  he 
himself  were  something  different  from  a  Jew.* 
There  is  no  special  need  to  identify  himself  with 
them  so  closely,  or  to  conciliate  them  so  care- 
fully, as  he  did  at  Jerusalem.  The  immediate 
Jewish  pressure  is  removed.  Moreover,  Festus  is 
seated  there  with  Agrippa.  Paul  is  preaching  the 
Gospel  to  both.  It  is  not  wise  that  anything 
should  be  said  which  would  needlessly  alienate 
either  the  one  or  the  other.  In  this  Nunc 
Di mitt is  of  the  faithful  Apostle,  if  we  may  so  call 
his  last  defence  before  leaving  the  Holy  Land,f  he 

*  Four  times  this  word  occurs  in  the  opening  part  of  the  address. 
St.  Paul's  identifying  himself  with  the  Jews  was  illustrated  above 
from  an  Epistle. — P.  25,  n.  2.  Mis  separating  himself  from  the 
Jews  here  may  be  similarly  paralleled.  See  the  use  of  lovdaia/j-bs  in 
Gal.  i.  14. 

t   Luke  ii.  32. 


TACT    AND    PRESENCE    OF    MIND.  45 

must  set  forth  Christ  as  the  '  Lio-ht  of  the  Gentiles 
as  well  as  the  '  Glory  of  the  People  Israel/ 

Yet  another  thing  must  be  carefully  noted.  Not 
even  here  is  this  Apostle  tempted  to  be  false  to 
his  hereditary  feeling.  No  ungenerous  repudia- 
tion of  his  Hebrew  birth  and  education  is  here, 
no  retaliating  by  harsh  words  for  cruel  actions. 
The  old  tender  sympathy  with  his  fellow  Jews  is 
audible  in  every  phrase.  It  is  '  mine  own  nation/ 
It  is  (  our  religion/  And  here  he  says  most  ex- 
plicitly that  he  was  a  Pharisee.  The  Resurrection 
was  now  the  main  point  in  question;  and  Agrippa 
knew  well  the  difference  between  the  two  great 
opposing  sects.  So  below  it  is  '  our  worship/  '  the 
promise  to  our  Fathers' — unto  which  '  our  Twelve 
Tribes '  *   (a  very  remarkable   phrase,  almost  with- 

*  Tb  Sadeicd(pv\ov  tjixcvv,  Acts  xxvi.  7.  See  James  i.  1,  Rev.  vii. 
4-8.  It  may  be  added  that  a  strong  personal  and  religious  feeling 
in  regard  to  the  old  constitution  of  the  Chosen  People  seems  to  be 
shown  in  St.  Paul's  emphatic  references  to  his  own  tribe,  Acts  xiii. 
2i,  Rom.  xi.  1,  Phil.  iii.  5.  No  one  in  the  New  Testament  is  so 
closely  associated  with  a  specific  tribe.  The  case  which  comes  nearest 
is  that  of  Anna,  Luke  ii    j6. 


46  THE     CHARACTER     OF     ST     PAUL. 

out  a  parallel   in  the  New  Testament),   e  serving 
God  night  and  day,  earnestly  desire  to  come/ 

But  then  immediately  below  he  adds  in  his  rapid 
way,  and  with  characteristic  alternation  of  feeling : 
'for  which  hope's  sake  I  am  accused  by  Jews.'* 
So  proceeding  in  the  same  strain  (in  the  account 
of  his  own  persecuting  days),  he  calls  the  Chris- 
tians '  Saints/  f  identifying  himself  with  them, J  as 
in  his  speech  at  Jerusalem  he  had  identified  himself 
with  the  unconverted  Jews,  calling  them  ' Brethren.'' 
He  says  his  efforts  were  directed  to  make  those 
saints  '  blaspheme.' §  To  speak  then  against  Chris- 
tianity was  to  blaspheme.  Such  a  word,  with  such 
a  meaning,  would  not  have  been  tolerated  in  the 
Temple.  All  this  free  play  of  feeling  corresponds 
with  the  comparative  freedom  of  the  occasion.  I 
see  also  in  every  word  the  traces  of  sagacity  and 
judgment.  Let  me  add  further  (though  this  is  not 
the  point  I  am  mainly  urging)  that  this  inter- 
change of  emotion  reminds  us  of  the  ebb  and  flow 

*  'Tirb  'lovdaiwu.     There  is  no  article. 

f  Acts  xxvi.  7.  %  1d-  10-  §   Acts  xxvi.  II. 


TACT  AND  PRESENCE  OF  MIND.     47 

of  feeling  which  we  notice  in  the  Epistles  written 
shortly  before  this  time.*  And  I  can  hardly 
imagine  anything  more  likely  to  conciliate  the 
respect  both  of  Festus  and  Agrippa  than  this 
natural  outpouring  of  the  heart,  tempered  and 
controlled  as  it  was,  all  the  while,  by  the  utmost 
discretion. 

The  general  remarks  which  were  made  at  the 
outset  on  this  speech  at  Caesarea,  as  summing  up 
much  of  its  significance,  may  be  divided  into  two 
particulars.  Being  far  more  disengaged  from  local 
conditions  than  was  the  address  at  Jerusalem,  it 
contains  a  far  greater  amount  of  Christian  doctrine 
than  the  former ;  and  St.  Paul  is  able  to  use  this 
occasion,  to  a  degree  in  which  he  could  not  use 
that,  as  an  opportunity  for  pressing  the  truth  on 
individual  consciences. 

To  ta.ke  the  second  point  first,  it  is  very  obser- 
vable how  a  reference  to  Consciencef  marks  this 

*  See  especially  Gal.  I.  6,  iii.  1,  iv.  12,  19;  2  Cor.  ii.  4,  vi. 
11-13,  vii.  3,  16,  xi.  2,  16-20,  xii.  zi,  xiii.  2, 10;  Rom.  ii.  1, 17-24, 
ix.  1-5,  19,  20,  x.  1,  xi.  1. 

f  This  feature  of  the  speech  is  noticed  again,  and  more  fully,  in 
Lecture  111. 


48  THE     CHARACTER     OF     ST     PAUL. 

speech.  St.  Paul  says  here  that  before  his  conver- 
sion he  had  conscientiously  thought  that  he  'ought 
to  do  many  things  contrary  to  the  name  of  Jesus 
ot  Nazareth/*  Again,  it  is  here  alone  of  the  three 
narratives  (for  of  course  I  must  follow  the  true 
readings)  that  the  remarkable  expression  occurs, 
( it  is  hard  for  thee  to  kick  against  the  pricks '  f — 
'hard/  that  is,  'for  thee  to  resist  these  inward 
compunctions'/ — and  again,  of  his  subsequent  con- 
duct his  phrase  is,  '  immediately  I  was  not  dis- 
obedient to  the  heavenly  vision/  J  What  a  lesson 
was  here  for  Agrippa  and  Festus  !  If  the  sin  and 
the  duty  of  the  Jews  were  gently  indicated  in  what 
Paul  said  of  himself  at  Jerusalem,  here  he  preached 
still  more  pointedly  through  his  own  experience  to 
his  Gentile  and  Hebrew  hearers.  The  momentous 
question  for  them  was,  whether  they  would  resist 
the  compunctions  which  they  felt — whether  they 
would  become  ( obedient  to  the  faith/ 

And  now  as  to  doctrine  (besides  the  great  belief 
in  the  Resurrection,  with  all  its  logical  results  as 

*  Acts  xxvi.  9         f  lb.  14.         %  lb.  19.         §  lb.  vi.  7. 


TACT    AND    PRESENCE    OF    MIND.  49 


regards  the  whole  question  of  miracles),  the  follow- 
ing fundamental  truths  will  be  found  in  the  sen- 
tences of  this  short  address : — the  existence  and 
power  of  Satan,  the  reality  of  conversion,  the 
necessity  of  the  sufferings  of  Christ,  the  remission 
of  sins,  faith,  repentance,  good  works  the  proof 
of  repentance,  the  fulfilment  of  Old  Testament 
prophecy,  the  enlightening  of  the  mind  and  the 
supporting  of  the  life  by  grace  from  above.  A 
Creed  or  a  Catechism  might  be  constructed  from 
this  speech  at  Caesarea. 

But  still,  perhaps,  .it  is  most  to  our  purpose,  on 
the  present  occasion,  to  dwell  upon  points  of 
detail.  Let  me,  therefore,  before  leaving  this 
speech  (and  with  this  speech  preparing  to  leave  the 
whole  subject),  invite  attention  to  one  or  two  of 
its  minor  features.  St.  Paul  at  Caesarea  does  not 
mention  Ananias  at  all,  on  whom  he  had  laid  so 
much  stress  at  Jerusalem.  Nor  does  he  say  any- 
thing of  his  own  vision  in  the  Temple.  The 
authority  of  an  obscure  Jew  of  Damascus  could 
have    had     no    weight   with    Agrippa;    and    the 

E 


50  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

mention  of  a  vision  might  have  provoked  the 
ridicule  of  Festus.  The  Apostle  concentrates  him- 
self on  the  full  commission  given  to  him  by  Jesus 
Himself;*  and  this  he  details  far  more  copiously 
than  we  have  it  in  Luke's  own  narrative. f  So 
again  with  regard  to  his  actual  work  in  obedience 
to  the  vision.  He  briefly  recounts  his  labours  in 
Damascus,  in  Jerusalem,  through  Judaea,  and  in 
the  Heathen  world  beyond.  J  His  mission  is  to  the 
Jew  and  the  Gentile,  to  Agrippa  and  to  Festus. 
Other  particulars,  too,  might  easily  be  mentioned — 
all  illustrative  of  a  noble  tact  and  presence  of 
mind — such  as  the  judicious,  complimentary,  yet 
perfectly  truthful,  preamble;  the  mindful  courteous 

*  Acts  xxvi.  16-18. 

f  An  important  question  arises  here,  as  to  whether  the  words  in 
vv.  16-18  were  liteially  spoken  by  Jesus  to  Paul  on  the  road  to 
Damascus,  or  the  Apostle  condenses  into  one  statement  words  spoken 
to  him  on  different  occasions.  The  determination  of  this  question, 
however,  is  of  no  moment  to  the  limited  argument  of  this  sermon. 
St.  Paul's  skill  and  discretion  in  giving  fully  here  what  he  omitted 
at  Jerusalem,  are  equally  conspicuous,  however  and  whenever  the 
Divine  communications  were  made. 

J  Acts  xxvi. 


TACT  AND  PRESENCE  OF  MIND.     5 1 

w 

respect  for  authority  shown  in  his  mode  of  address- 
ing the  Governor  after  an  insulting  interruption;* 
the  credit  given  to  Agrippa,  not  only  for  religious 
knowledge,  but  for  some  degree  of  religious  faith  ;  f 
and,  above  all,  the  unparalleled  skill  with  which  he 
gives  a  new  and  exquisite  turn  to  the  king's  sudden 
exclamation.  J  If  ever — to  use  again  the  words  of 
our  text — if  ever  speech  was  '  with  grace/  it  was 
that  admirable  reply.  But  for  the  discussion  of 
that  point  another  occasion  must  be  found. §  On 
a  general  view  of  this  whole  address,  it  is  clear 
that  a  careful  analysis  brings  most  distinctly  into 

*  Kpa.Ti(TT€  $7}(rTe,  xxvi.  25.  So  he  addresses  Felix,  xxiv.  3. 
So  three  times,  in  the  phrase  used  by  Festus  himself  (xxv.  24,  26), 
he  says  fiaatAcv  'Aypiinra  (xxvi.  2,  19,  2?),  giving  the  title  which 
was  the  due,  but  only  just  the  due,  of  this  last  of  the  Herodian 
monarchs.  As  to  Festus's  interruption  and  St.  Paul's  reply  (vv.  24, 
25),  it  is  worth  while  to  notice,  as  an  indication  of  the  mixture  of 
enthusiasm  and  discretion  in  the  Apostle's  character,  that  he  had 
previously  been  accused  both  of  madness  and  of  aio<ppoavvr)  (the  verv 
word  used  here).     See  2  C:  r.  v.  13. 

f  After  the  pointed  and  searching  question  addressed  (v.  27)  to 
the  king  (TruTTeveis,  @a(ri\ev  ' Ayp'nnra,  to7s  irpo(pr]Tais  ;),  the  words 
suddenly  subjoined  (olSa  on  irKTreueis)  are  eminently  characteristic 
of  the  Apostle.     His  Epistles  supply  many  parallels. 

X  Vv.  28-29. 

§  See  Lecture  II. 


52  THE    CHARACTER    OF     ST    PAUL. 

prominence  that  feature  of  character  which  has 
been  before  our  attention  to-day.  And  can  any- 
one imagine  of  this  speech,  more  than  of  the 
former,  either  that  it  was  put  together  by  an  in- 
genious composer  so  as  to  suit  a  place  prepared  by 
himself,  or  that  it  grew  together  accidentally  by 
concourse  of  the  loose  atoms  of  an  impalpable 
tradition  ?* 

And  now,  in  our  conclusion,  it  must  be  evident 
to  all  familiar  with  the  New  Testament  that  large 
materials  are  left  entirely  untouched.  Hardly  any 
direct  mention  has  been  made  of  the  Epistles — yet 
it  must  not  be  supposed  that  there  would  be  any 
difficulty  in  pursuing  through  them  the  same  line 
of  argument.      Thus,  to   take   just  one    instance 

*  The  shallow  criticism  of  Baur  amounts  to  this,  that 
the  author  of  the  Acts,  wishing  to  exhibit  Paul  in  harmony  with 
Judaism,  brings  him  before  a  judge  we]}  acquainted  with  Jewish 
customs  and  with  the  hi&tory  of  Jesus  (xxvi.  3),  makes  the  matter 
more  pointed  by  such  an  appeal  as  that  in  v.  27,  and  then  secures 
the  acquittal  (vv.  31,  32).  The  individuality  (so  to  speak)  and  ap- 
propriateness of  the  speech  are,  as  in  the  former  case,  an  adequate 
answer,  especially  if  we  consider  the  deep  feeling  manifested  by  the 
Apostle. 


TACT  AND  PRESENCE  OF  MIND.     $$ 

which  is  common  to  both  classes  of  the  sacred 
documents,  if  anything  deserves  the  name  of  a 
word  spoken  '  with  grace'  and  l seasoned  with 
salt/  it  is  a  good  and  timely  quotation.  Such 
quotations  from  Heathen  poets  occur  both  in  the 
Acts  and  Epistles ;  and  no  one  who  knows  what 
were  the  mental  and  moral  characteristics  of 
Athens,  Corinth,  and  Crete,  will  deny  that  they 
are  applied   here  with  singular  propriety.*     And 

T  These  citations,  taken  together,  furnish  a  solid  addition  to  the 
argument  of  these  Lectures.  One  is  in  the  Acts,  the  second  in  an 
epistle  which  no  one  doubts,  and  the  third  in  an  epistle  which  has 
been  questioned  of  late.  There  is  no  trace  of  imitation  ;  nor  would 
imitation  be  easy  in  such  a  case,  without  the  appearance  of  contri- 
vance. The  quotations,  too,  are  very  different  from  one  another, 
and  each  of  them  rises  naturally  out  of  the  context.  Yet  one  cha- 
racteristic marks  them  all.  In  each  case  the  Apostle  falls  back  on 
ground  which  is  common  to  himself  and  those  whom  he  wishes  to 
persuade,  and  adduces  an  authority  which  they  themselves  must 
recognize  as  of  weight.  To  the  Athenians  he  quotes  one  of  their 
own  Poets  in  regard  toaprinciple  of  Natural  Religion  (Acts  xvii.  28). 
On  the  Corinthians  he  urges  a  lesson  cf  Morality  from  one  of  their 
own  Comic  writers  (1  Cor.  xv.  33).  In  writing  to  Titus  he  has 
given  a  very  severe  character  of  the  Cretans ;  but  he  shows  that  this 
is  no  slander,  by  quoting  one  of  their  own  Sages  to  the  same  effect 
(Tit.  i.  12).     It  is  not  out  of  place  here  to  use  the  words  of  one 


54  THE    CHARACTER     OF    ST    PAUL. 


what  is  said  here  of  classical  citations  might  be 
said  with  equal  truth  of  the  Apostle's  use  of 
allegory  in  arguing  with  his  own  Jewish  brethren.* 
He  who  could  be  an  Athenian  to  the  Greek,  was 
'  a  Hebrew  of  the  Hebrews '  to  the  Jew. 

who  was  no  friend  to  Christianity  :  '  When  I  consider  this  Apostle 
as  appearing  either  before  the  witty  Athenians,  or  before  a  Roman 
court  of  judicature,  in  the  presence  of  their  great  men  and  ladys, 
and  see  how  handsomely  he  accommodates  himself  to  the  apprehen- 
sions and  temper  of  those  politer  people;  I  do  not  find  that  he  de- 
clines the  way  of  wit  or  good  humour ;  but,  without  suspicion  of 
this  cause,  is  willing  generously  to  commit  it  to  this  proof,  and  try  it 
against  the  sharpness  of  any  ridicule  which  might  be  offer'd.' — Lord 
Shaftesbury's  '  Characteristics,'  vol.  i.  p.  30.  Elsewhere  he  refers  to 
the  quotations  from  heathen  poets,  vol.  iii.  p.  238.  In  a  third  pas- 
sage is  the  following  :  '  The  magnificence  and  beauty  of  that  Temple 
is  well  known  to  all  who  have  form'd  any  idea  of  the  ancient  Gre- 
cian arts  and  workmanship.  It  seems  to  me  to  be  remarkable  in 
our  learned  and  elegant  Apostle,  that  tho'  an  enemy  to  this  me- 
chanical spirit  of  religion  in  the  Ephesians ;  yet,  according  to  his 
known  character,  he  accommodates  himself  to  their  humour,  and 
the  natural  turn  of  their  enthusiasm,  by  writing  to  his  converts  in  a 
kind  of  architect  stile,  and  almost  a  perpetual  allusion  to  building 
and  to  that  majesty,  order,  and  beauty  of  which  their  temple  was  a 
masterpiece;  Eph.  ii.  20,  21,  22,  and  so  ch.  iii.  17,  18,  etc.,  and 
ch.  iv.  16,  29.' — Vol.  iii.  p.  83. 

*  See  especially  Gal.  iv.  21-31  ;  1  Cor.  x.  1-4;  2  Cor.  iii.  7-16. 
In  the  same  point  of  view  we  may  consider  manf  of  St.  Paul's  quo- 


TACT    AND    PRESENCE    OF    MIND.  $$ 

Proceeding;  alons;  the  same  line  of  thought.  I 
might  notice  the  judicious  way  in  which  religious 
doctrines  are  presented  in  the  Epistles,  so  as  to 
penetrate,  with  the  least  possible  amount  of  resist- 
ance, the  hearts  of  those  who  are  addressed. 
Here,  T  confess,  the  feeling  of  reverence  would  in 
some  degree  arrest  me.  I  should  indeed,  in  thus 
writing,  be  following  the  footmarks  of  one,  whose 
voice,  not  many  years  ago,  was  among  the  strong- 
est and  weightiest  here.*     But   Professor  Bl  tint's 

tations  from  the  Old  Testament.  No  one  can  appreciate  these,  and 
especially  the  fitness  and  beauty  of  what  may  be  called  his  semi- 
quotations,  without  a  careful  verbal  comparison  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment and  the  Septuagint. 

*  The  quotations  on  the  title-page  and  opposite  the  first  page  of 
this  sermon  are  from  Professor  Blunt's  Lecture  '  On  the  Ministerial 
Character  of  St.  Paul,'  in  his  volume  on  the  '  Duties  of  the  Parish 
Priest.'  He  dwells  on  the  zeal  *  which  makes  every  person,  thing, 
and  crisis  more  or  less  tributary  to  the  cause  in  hand'  (p.  6),  on  his 
readiness  to  use  *  every  expedient,  rather  than  give  the  sinner  up' 
(p.  it);  on  his  'sound  discretion'  in  endeavouring  to  maintain 
cordial  co-operation  among  the  ministers  of  the  Church'  (p.  23 »  : 
and  as  illustrations  of  conciliatory  prudence  he  adduces  the  Apostle's 
cautious  '  treading  upon  ashes,  under  which  he  knew  there  were 
smouldering  fires,' even  in  utging  the  doctrines  of  justification  by 
faith,  and  of  the  Union  of  Gentiles  and  Jews  in  Christ  (pp.  16-18). 


5<5  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PATI-. 

steps  were  firm ;  and  those  who  have  not  his 
mature  wisdom  may  well  be  cautious  where  they 
tread.  When  we  speak  of  doctrinal  teaching  we 
rise  into  a  higher  sphere  than  that  within  which 
this  discourse  is  limited.  Yet  this  one  remark 
may  be  hazarded,  that  Inspiration  makes  use  of 
tendencies  of  character  as  well  as  peculiarities 
of  style.  And  at  least  it  is  important  to  observe, 
that  in  the  teaching  of  the  Epistles  the  same  dis- 
cretion is  conspicuous  which  we  have  noted  in 
the  sudden  emergencies  of  the  Acts.  The  cha- 
racter of  the  man,  however  we  may  explain  it,  is 
identical.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  he  is,  to  use 
his  own  expression,*  '  made  all  things  to  all 
men.'-f 

I  may  speak,  however,  with  less  difficulty  and 
reserve  in  lightly  touching  two  other  points  in  the 
short  time  which  remains — viz.,  the  discriminat- 
ing judgment   with  which   St.  Paul  in  his  writ- 

*  i  Cor.  ix.  22. 

f  Yet  must  we  never  forget  the  conclusion  of  the  sentence,  which 
gives  the  motive  of  the  whole — '  that  1  might  by  all  means  save 
some.' 


TACT  AND  PRESENCE  OF  MIND.     $J 

ings  deals  with  practical  subjects,  and  addresses 
different  individuals  and  classes  of  men.  We 
see  this  in  the  skill  with  which  he  approaches  an 
unpalatable  topic,  sometimes  correcting  himself,* 
for  instance,  to  take  the  edge  off  what  might 
otherwise  cut  too  sharply.  We  see  it  in  his 
habit  of  praising  before  he  blames,  f  to  a  degree 
which  would  hardly  be  excusable  except  on  his 
own  principle  (or  rather  the  Divine  principle) J 
of  '  hoping  all  things  and  believing  all  things/ 

As  to  St.  Paul's  communications  with  indivi- 
duals, there  will  be  other  occasions  for  dwelling  on 
his  distinctive  salutations  and  messages.  This  only 
need  be  remarked  now,  that  they  are  eminently 
adapted  to  touch  the  chord  of  feeling  which  he 
wishes  to  reach. §      And  can  anything   be  more 

*  See,  for  instance,  2  Cor.  ix.  4,  and  compare  Rom.  i.  12.  An 
interesting  sermon  on  the  '  Self- Corrections  of  St.  Paul '  has  been 
published  in  Dublin  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Clarke,  of  Southport. 

f  The  most  marked  example  is  in  the  First  Epistle  to  the  Corin- 
thians.    See  i.  4-10,  and  compare  2  Cor.  viii.  7. 

+   1  Cor.  xiii.  7. 

§  See  Rom.  xvi.  1-4,  5,  9,  13  ;  1  Cor.  xvi.  15-18  ;  Phil.  iv.  2,  3  ; 
Col.  iv.  12. 


$8  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

judicious  and  skilful  (as  well  as  tender,  just,  and 
edifying)  than  the  whole  of  the  letter  to  Phile- 
mon ?  And  again,  with  regard  to  his  two  dear 
sons  in  the  faith,  Titus  and  Timotheus,  just  as  we 
can  see  the  wise  discrimination  of  the  Apostle  in 
circumcising  the  one*  and  resolutely  refusing  to 
circumcise  the  other,  f  so  I  believe  we  can,  on  a 
careful  scrutiny,  trace  a  regard  to  the  differing 
characters  of  the  two  men,  in  the  different  mis- 
sions with  which  they  were  respectively  entrusted, 
the  different  posts  in  which  they  were  placed,  and 
the  different  modes  in  which  they  were  addressed 
in  the  Pastoral  Epistles.  J 

*  Acts  xvi.  3.         f  Gal.  i.  3. 

J  I  may  refer  here  to  the  article  Titus  in  the  '  Dictionary  of  the 
Bible,'  and  (with  more  satisfaction)  to  the  article  Timothy,  and  to  the 
'  Companions  of  St.  Paul,  v.  and  xii.'  Both  were  men  of  zeal,  activity, 
and  integrity,  and  both  bound  by  the  closest  ties  of  affection  to  St. 
Paul ;  but  there  are  good  grounds  for  concluding  that  Titus  was  t'  e 
firmer  and  more  energetic  of  the  two.  To  him  was  entrusted  the 
task  of  enforcing  the  Apostle's  rebukes  on  the  offending  church  at 
Corinth,  and  urging  on  the  flagging  business  of  the  collection.  (See 
Stanley's  '  Corinthians,'  2nd.  ed.  pp.  347,  348).  He  too  had  after- 
wards the  hard  duty  of  dealing  with  the  rough  and  lawless  Cretans. 
The  abrupt  and  peremptory  tone  of  the  Epistle  to  Titus  implies  a 


TACT  AND  PRESENCE  OF  MIND.     59 


As  to  the  Apostle's  discretion  in  dealing  with 
practical  subjects  (though  here,  too,  as  in  doctrinal 
teaching,  we  must  reverently  recognize  a  wisdom 
higher  than  his  own),  we  still  find  consistency. 
Let  me  just  mention  the  one  momentous  subject 
of  slavery,  partly  because  some  have  presumed  to 
call  the  morality  of  the  New  Testament  in  regard 
to  it  defective,*  and  partly  because  of  the  terrible 

position  in  which  decision  and  strength  of  purpose  were  requued. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  seems  no  fancy  which  traces  a  shrinking  sen- 
sitiveness in  Timothy,  and  something  of  a  '  feminine  piety,'  corre- 
sponding to  his  delicate  health  and  early  education.  And  it  is  not 
likely  that  he  would  be  on  this  account  less  attractive  to  St.  Paul, 
however  unfit  he  might  be  (comparatively)  for  the  more  difficult 
missions.  See  the  anxiety  expressed  when  he  is  sent  to  Corinth 
(1  Cor.  xvi.  10),  and  the  reiterated  admonitions  to  courage  (1  Tim. 
i.  18,  v.  21  ;  2  Tim.  i.  6,  7,  13,  14;  ii.  1,  15). 

*  Not  to  mention  others  who  have  written  more  directly  against 
Christianity,  I  may  refer  with  regret  to  some  pages  (87-94)  in 
Mr.  J.  S.  Mill's  book  '  On  Liberty.'  He  says  that  the  New  Tes- 
tament does  not  give  us  a  complete  system  of  ethics  (p.  88),  and 
that  some  of  the  best  of  our  morality  is  derived  from  Un-Christianand 
even  Anti-Christian  sources  (p.  93),  and  '  magnanimity,  high-mind- 
edness,  personal  dignity,'  are  particularly  specified  (p.  90),  which, 
it  must  be  confessed,  have  but  a  small  place  in  the  ideal  of  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount,  or  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles.  '  St.  Paul's  advice 
to  Christians  is,  in  a  great  measure,  a  system  of  accommodation  to 


60  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

solution  which  the  question  is  receiving  in  our 
own  time.*  On  the  one  hand  the  execrable  sin 
of  kidnapping  and  slave-dealing  is  condemned  by 
St.  Paul  in  language  to  which  even  the  natural 
conscience  of  a  Heathen  might  be  expected  to 
respond  •  and  thus  the  Apostle  lays  the  axe  at  the 
root  of  the  tree  which  has  spread  a  poisonous 
shade  over  many  fair  regions  of  the  earth. f  Yet, 
on  the  other  hand,  while  addressing  slaves,  his 
language  is  always  that  of  advice  to  the  perform- 
ance of  present  duties,  without  a  word  concern- 
ing natural  rights,  real  or  supposed,  or  suggestions 


the  pre-existing  morality  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  even  to  the 
extei.t  of  giving  an  apparent  sanction  to  slavery'  (p.  83).  In  a 
superficial  sense  this  is  true.  But  really  it  is  a  fallacy  to  say  that 
slavery  is  sanctioned  by  him  because  it  is  dealt  with  as  a  fact.  The 
recognition  that  Masters  have  duties  as  well  as  Slaves  must  neces- 
sarily have  a  disintegrating  effect  on  the  system.  Christian  love 
must  undermine  slavery. 

*  These  sermons  were  preached  during  the  crisis  of  the  recent 
American  Civil  War. 

"I"  TlarpaXwais  nal  p.ijTpak(£cas,  avdpotpovoi? ,  irvpyois,  apcrevoKoi- 
Tais,  aydpairodixTTats,  1  Tim.  i.  9,  10.  No  words  could  set  a  blacker 
mark  on  the  crime  of  man-stealing:  and  it  is  evident  that  slavery  is 
here  assailed  in  its  very  root  and  origin. 


TACT  AND  PRESENCE  OF  MIND.     6\ 

that  bondsmen  should  struggle  for  their  liberty. 
And  here  (as  in  the  case  of  circumcision)  the  prin- 
ciple laid  down  by  the  Apostle  is  illustrated  in 
his  practice.  Writing  to  the  Corinthians,  he  says 
that  slaves  are  to  remain  in  the  condition  in 
which  Christianity  found  them  ;*  and  even  if  they 
can  be  free,  he  advises  them  rather  to  use  their 
present  position  as  a  means  of  honouring  the 
Gospel. f  So,  in  writing  to  Timothy,!  he  gives 
special  directions  as  to  the  attitude  they  are  to 
maintain  towards  their  masters,  whether  Heathen 
or  Christian.  And  in  harmony  with  all  this, 
Onesimus,    who    had    defrauded    his    master  and 

*   i   Cor.  vii.  20-24. 

f  AAA.'  €t  kcu  Suvaaat  iAevOepos  ycvcadai,  fiaWov  xPV<Tahvlx-  21. 
It  seems  to  me  certain  that  St.  Paul  here  advises  the  Christian  Slave 
(now  '  the  Lord's  Freeman  ')  to  remain  in  his  present  position,"  even 
if  the  change  is  within  his  power.  This  is  the  natural  translation  of 
the  Greek,  so  far  as  I  can  judge:  and  the  other  view  is  out  of 
harmony  with  the  whole  argument  of  the  chapter.  See  especially 
verses  20  and  24.  Philanthropic  feeling  has  sometimes  a  disturbing 
effect  on  criticism.  We  put  into  the  Bible  what  we  think  we  ought 
to  find  there  ;  and  we  condemn  or  suspect  others  accordingly.  But 
Revelation  will  in  the  end  justify  itself. 

t   1   Tim.  vi.   1-2. 


63  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

left  him,  is  sent  back  (now  a  Brother- Christian) 
to  Philemon.  By  thus  enjoining  love  and  forbear- 
ance and  mutual  trust,  in  the  relation  of  slave  and 
master,  the  seed  was  sown  whence  a  harvest  of 
liberty  was  gradually  but  surely  to  grow.  But 
suppose  that  St.  Paul  had  written  and  acted  other- 
wise :  suppose  that  he  had  excommunicated  Phile- 
mon for  being  an  owner  of  slaves  :  suppose  that, 
like  an  Apostolic  Spartacus,  he  had  proclaimed, 
in  the  name  of  the  Gospel,  the  duty  of  the  rising 
of  all  who  were  in  bondage — who  that  knows  the 
dreadful  features  of  the  colossal  slave-system  of 
the  first  century  can  doubt  what  the  consequences 
would  have  been  ?  A  Servile  War,  more  terrible 
than  those  which  cost  some  Roman  armies  in 
Sicily  and  on  the  slopes  of  Vesuvius,  would  have 
raged  through  the  Empire  in  the  name  of  Religion. 
Christianity  would  have  been  disgraced  in  its 
early  days — and  along  that  Appian  Way,*  where 
Paul  went  in  humility  and  weakness  to  bring 
blessings  to  such  as  Onesimus  and  the  members  of 
'  Caesar's  household  'f — and  on  all   the  roads    of 

*  See  Appian,  '  B.C.*  i.  120.  f  Phil.  iv.  22. 


TACT  AND  PRESENCE  OF  MIND.     6$ 

the  Empire — the  spectacle  would  have  been  seen 
of  slaves  crucified  to  strike  terror  into  those  who 
passed.  Or,  what  would  have  been  worse,  the, 
slaves  would  have  obtained  the  victory,  and  the 
Roman  Polity  would  have  been  destroyed  without 
the  triumph  of  True  Christianity. 

There  are  other  mines  of  rich  wisdom  in  St. 
Paul's  Epistles,  through  which  the  same  charac- 
teristic vein  of  practical  discretion  might  be 
followed.*  Nor  is  the  book  of  the  Acts  itself 
by  any  means  exhausted. f  Every  one  must  re- 
member those  proofs  of  versatility  which  the 
Apostle  affords — when  he  speaks  of  the  seasons 
and  the  harvest  to  the  rude  idolaters  of  Lystra, 
when  he  quotes  the  Old  Testament  in  the  syna- 
gogue at  Antioch  in  Pisidia,  when  he  appeals  to 
the  experience  of  conflict  and  suffering  in  address- 
ing the  elders  at  Miletus,  and,  above  all,  in  the 
opening  words  of  that  speech  on  the  Areopagus 

*  Especially  in  questions  connected  with  marriage  and  the  posi- 
tion of  unmarried  women. 

f  lb.  xiii.  17,  35.  xiv.  17.      lb.  xx.  18,  19, 34,  35.      lb.  xvii.,  22. 


64  THE    CHARACTER     OF    ST    PAUL. 

at  Athens,  the  mistranslation  of  which  *  is 
almost  more  to  be  regretted  than  any  other  flaw 
in  our  admirable  English  Version,  because  it  turns 
into  a  glaring  exception  to  St.  Paul's  habit  what 
really  was  one  of  its  signal  examples. 

'  Ye  men  of  Athens,  I  perceive  that  ye  are  too 
superstitious/  I  could  imagine  some  fearless 
preacher  addressing  a  Scientific  Congress  with 
some  such  words  as  these :  '  Ye  men  of  Science,  I 
perceive  that  ye  are  too  sceptical/  Such  a  parody 
as  this  (even  if  it  were  justified  by  the  facts) 
would  be  rebuked,  not  only  by  the  tru  meaning 
of  the  Apostle's  words  at  Athens,  but  by  the 
whole  tenor  of  his  speeches  and  letters.  If  the 
Apostle  Paul  were  preaching  here,  he  would  not 
expect  to  succeed  by  means  of  antagonism  between 

*  I  do  not  forget  how  dctaiSai/jiwv  is  used  by  Theophrastus,  but 
such  a  man  would  be  apt  to  look  coldly  on  all  religious  earnestness. 
AeiaiSai/j.ovia  is  a  neutral  term  ;  and  one  part  of  St.  Paul's  tact  is 
seen  in  the  use  of  such  a  term.  He  gives  the  Athenians  credit  for 
bestowing  much  zeal  and  attention  on  religion,  without  expressing 
any  opinion  (at  first)  on  the  quality  of  the  religion  itself.  Just  so 
Festus,  in  speaking  to  Agrippa  of  the  Jewish  religion  (xxv.  19), 
uses  this  very  word. 


TACT    AND    PRESENCE    OF    MIND.  6$ 


his  auditors  and  himself.  Rather  he  would  imme- 
diately and  instinctively  discover  some  common 
ground  on  which  he  might  address  a  word  to  their 
immortal  souls.  What  feeble  echo  can  I  attempt 
of  this  early  Apostolic  wisdom,  in  the  great  space 
which  modern  discovery  has  created  round  our 
weak  and  degenerate  Christianity  ?  Surely  it  is 
best  that  I  should  enter  at  once  on  that  common 
ground  on  which  we  all  stand,  as  sinful,  dying, 
redeemed  men.  I  know  not  why  I  should  assume 
an  essential  difference  between  this  congregation 
and  any  other  that  meets  this  afternoon  in  the 
towns  and  villages  of  our  land.  This  Holy  Day 
is  a  pause  in  the  midst  of  a  week  of  busy  and 
varied  discussion.  The  contrast  may  well  be 
marked  by  the  simplicity  of  what  is  said  now  in 
church.  The  questions  are  very  simple  to  which 
we  shall  seek  an  answer  at  the  last,  unless  we  have 
found  the  satisfactory  answer  before.  How  am  I 
to  be  pardoned  for  my  sin  ?  How  am  I  to 
be  prepared  for  being  happy  in  that  world  be- 
yond the  impenetrable  gloom  ?     Science  will  ad- 

F 


66  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 


vance,  but  I  must  die.     (  Art  is  long,  but  life  is 
short.* 

That  aphorism  of  the  Greek  Father  of  Medicine 
has  such  richness  of  meaning  beyond  its  first  ap- 
plication, that  it  never  need  be  deemed  common- 
place. If  on  the  other  days  of  this  week  the  stress 
is  laid— very  naturally,  though  not  without  some 
dangers — on  the  first  part  of  the  maxim — on  the 
increasing  grandeur  and  indefinite  progress,  and 
ever-lengthening  prospects  of  Science — here  on 
this  day  our  stress  must  be  laid  on  its  latter  part. 
(  Life  is  short.'  Even  while  it  lasts  it  is  a  troubled 
life.  And  Science  gives  no  comfort  to  the  be- 
reaved, no  strength  against  temptation,  no  alle- 
viation of  the  guilty  conscience.  And  when  we 
leave  this  life  (as  soon  we  must),  then  Science, 
even  Science  in  connection  with  Theologv,  will  do 
little  for  us.  Not  the  precise  antiquity  of  the 
human  race — not  the  precise  line  which  separates 
allegory  in  Scripture  from  history — not  the  precise 
present  or  past  interval  between  the  physical 
organisations   of   man  and    the    brutes — not   the 


TACT    AND    PRESENCE    OF    MIND.  67 

precise  relationship  between  miracles  and  necessary 
causation — not  the  reconciliation  of  general  laws 
with  special  providence — these  will  not  then  be 
the  important  questions.  These  we  shall  all  pro- 
bably leave  unsolved.  But  one  question  of  far 
greater  moment  has  been  solved  for  us — '  God  was 
in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  unto  Himself,  not 
imputing  their  trespasses  unto  them/* 

How  can  I  avoid  here  referring  to  one,  lately 
taken  from  us,  from  the  work  of  the  University  and 
from  the  society  of  kindred  minds,  who  evidently, 
in  his  calm  dying  hours,  combined  a  wise  and 
candid  philosophy  with  a  deep  sense  of  the  need 
and  the  efficacy  of  atonement  ?  I  have  none  of 
that  right  to  speak  of  Professor  Henslow  which 
arises  from  scientific  attainments,  but  I  have 
those  rights  which  arise  from  the  recollection  of 
personal  kindness,  from  sharing  his  love  (though 
not  his  knowledge)  of  Nature,  and  from  a  sense  of 
the  benefit  he  has  done  in  asserting  for  the  Natural 
Sciences  their  due  place  in  elementary  education. 

*  z  Cor.  v.   19. 

F    2 


68  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 


How  the  Christian  heart  rejoices  when  the  eye 
falls  on  such  words  as  these  in  the  concluding 
pages  of  the  memoir  of  his  life !  (  Saviour  of  this 
awful  world  of  corruption,  who  can  tell  what  Thou 
hast  done  for  us  sinners  ?  How  beautiful  a  world 
this  is!  all  love  it  too  well  and  cling  to  it:  but  I 
have  no  desire  to  do  so  now :  I  hold  fast  my  faith  : 
my  6ure  trust  is  in  the  merits  of  my  Blessed 
Saviour/*  Soon  we  shall  be  on  the  eve  of  the 
same  departure.  '  Art/  indeed,  '  is  long/  Science 
will  advance — to  what  results  we  know  not.  But 
our  souls  will  have  passed  into  another  world  ;  and 
all  will  then  depend  upon  whether  we  have  so 
'  redeemed  the  time/  as  to  be  united  by  faith  and 
love  with  the  Saviour  who  died  that  we  might 
liye. 

*  '  Memoir  of  Professor  Henslow,'  pp.  260,  z6i. 


TENDERNESS  AND  SYMPATHY. 


Loin  de  vouloir  'T"ssimi'ler  \f&  infirmites  de  Paul,  j'en  ai  besoin 
pour  mettre  son  exemple  a  notre  portee ;  c'est  grace  a  elles  qu'il 
peut  nous  dire :  '  Soyez  comme  moi,  car  je  suis  aussi  comme  vous.' 

Les  idees  de  grandeur  et  d'energie  qu'une  lecture  meme  super- 
ficelle  de  l'Evangile  fait  associer  avec  le  nom  de  saint  Paul,  pour- 
raient  aisement  nous  faire  oublier  un  autre  trait  de  son  caractere  que 
re\ele  une  etude  plus  attentive  de  son  histcire. 

Par  un  rare  privilege  de  la  nature,  dirai-je?  ou  de  la  grace,  saint 
Paul,  reunissant  des  qualites  contraires  et  temperant  la  force  par  la 
douceur,  portait  un  des  ceeurs  les  plus  sensiblesqui  aient  battu  sous 
le  ciel:  je  ne  dis  pas  seulement  un  cceur  chaud,  mais  un  coeur 
sensible  aux  attachements  tend  res,  aux  emotions  vives,  a  la  larme 
facile  :  tant  s'en  fautque  sa  grandeur  ait  rien  de  haut,  ou  son  energie 
rien  de  dur. 

A.  Monod. 


II. 

TENDERNESS  AND  SYMPATHY. 

"  Being  mindful  of  thy  tears" — 2  Tim.  i.  4. 

One  of  the  best  of  modern  sermons  has  for  its 
subject,  '  the  tears  of  St.  Paul/  The  preacher — 
an  eloquent  Continental  divine,  whose  loss  is  de- 
plored by  all  who  knew  him* — takes  naturally  for 
his  text  that  address  to  the  Ephesian  Elders  at 
Miletus,  f  in  which  all  the  sympathy  and  tender- 

*  The  reference  is  to  the  second  of  Adolphe  Monod's  '  Cinq 
Discours '  on  St.  Paul,  '  Ses  Larmes.'  There  is  an  earlier  French 
sermon  with  the  same  title,  by  Ancillon  (Charenton,  1676).  Ses 
below.  The  side  of  St.  Paul's  character  which  forms  the  subject  of 
the  present  Lecture,  has  been  illustrated,  so  far  as  I  know,  by  no  one  so 
well  as  by  the  two  French  writers,  A.  Monod  and  E.  de  Pressense ; 
and  I  have  given  several  extracts  from  them  in  the  notes. 

f  For  some  observations  on  the  internal  marks  of  authenticity, 
and  of  resemblance  to  St.  Paul's  Epistles,  which  are  evident  in 
this  address,  see  Lecture  V. 


72  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

ness  of  the  Apostle's  nature  finds  copious  expres- 
sion.    Three  times  within  the  space  of  a  few  verses 
are   '  tears '   mentioned   in  the   short  narrative   of 
that  meeting  and  parting :  first,  when  he  reminds 
his  hearers  '  after  what  manner  he  had  been  with 
them    at  all    seasons,   serving    the  Lord   with    all 
humility  of  mind,  and  with   many  tears  and  temp- 
tations which  befell  him  by  the  lying  in  wait  of  the 
Jews';*  then  again   below,  when  he  warns  them 
of  coming  danger,  and   says  that   he  himself  '  by 
the  space  of  three   years  had   not  ceased  to  warn 
every  one  night  and  day  with  tears ;  'f  and  then  at 
the  close,  when  he  kneeled  down  and  prayed  with 
them,  and  ( they  all  wept  sore,  sorrowing  most  of 
all  for  the  words  which  he  spake,  that  they  should 
see  his  face  no  more/{    And  occasion  is  taken  from 
this  passage  to  illustrate  a  threefold  manifestation 
of  the  Apostle's  feeling.     He  shed  tears  of  suffer- 
ing and pa'm — tears  of  pastoral  solicitude — tears  of 
natural  affection  and  friendship.       Herein   is  the 
servant  in  a  holy  parallelism  with  his  Master.    For 
three  times  it  is  recorded  of  Jesus  Christ  that  He 
*  Acts  xx.  18,  19.         |  Ib-  **•  31-         +  Ib-  3?»  J8* 


TENDERNESS    AND    SYMPATHY.  73 

wept — tears  at  Gethsemane — tears  over  Jerusalem 
— tears  at  the  grave  of  Lazarus.* 

As  to  the  first  expression  of  feeling — that  of 
affliction  and  pain — St.  Paul's  whole  ministry  was 
a  ministry  of  tears.  His  Apostleship  and  his 
suffering  were  inseparably  blended.  We  see  this, 
whether  we  take  for  our  guide  the  history  in  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  or  his  own  short  summary 
in  the  eleventh  chapter  of  the  Second  Epistle  to 
the  Corinthians :  and  when  he  wrote  that  letter  a 
few  months  before  the  meeting  at  Miletus,  he  was 
not  yet  near  the  end  of  his  course.  Taking  our 
stand  anywhere  about  this  part  of  his  career,  and 
looking  either  backward  or  forward,  in  each  di- 
rection we  see  a  continued  martyrdom.  Even  at 
the  very  time  of  his  conversion,  Ananias  was  di- 
rected to  speak  to  him  of  'the  great  things  he 
should  suffer  for  the  name  of  Christ/f  At  Miletus 
his  foreboding  was  of 'bonds and  afflictions ;'J  and 
standing  with  him  there,  we  are  now  able  to  fill  in 

*  Heb.  v.  7,  Luke  xix.  41,  John  xi.  35. 
t  Acts  ix.  16.  X  lb-  xx.  23. 


74  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 


the  perspective  of  what  was  then  before  him,  with 
materials  supplied  by  two  groups  of  letters,  written 
either  in  or  between  two  subsequent  captivities — 
the  Epistles  to  the  Colossians,  Ephesians,  Phile- 
mon and  Philippians  on  the  one  hand,  and  those 
to  Timothy  and  Titus  on  the  other. 

If  we  turn  to  the  second  of  these  passages, 
which  speaks  of  the  earnest  warning  of  each  indi- 
vidual, night  and  day,  it  is  well  remarked  by  the 
preacher  to  whom  I  have  referred,  that  those  tears 
contain  a  whole  body  both  of  dogmatic  and  of 
moral  theology.  Here  is  no  mere  purified  Deism. 
Who  ever  heard  of  a  Deist  weeping  because  his 
doctrine  was  not  accepted  ?  *     Here   is   no   mere 

*  '  Ces  larmes  que  vous  lui  coutez,  ne  vous  font -dies  pas  lire 
dans  le  coeur  de  son  christianisme  ?  J'y  demele,  quant  a  moi,  tout 
un  cours  de  dogmatique  chretienne  ou  de  morale  chretienne;  j'y 
trouve  bien  mieux  encore :  au  lieu  de  la  dogmatique,  la  verite,  et  au 
lieu  de  la  morale,  la  charite.  La  verite,  vue  si  clairement,  qu'elle 
lui  fait  pressentir  pour  vous  un  malheur  affreux  si  vous  persistez  a  la 
rejeter ;  la  charite,  si  vivement  sentie,  qu'elle  lui  rend  votre  salut 
presque  aussi  necessaire  que  le  sien  .  .  .  On  veut  savoir  si  l'Evan-  . 
gile  de  saint  Paul  n'est  qu'un  deisme  epure  .  .  .  Expliquez-moj 
les  larmes  de   saint  Paul,  s'il  n'avait  d'autre  doctrine  a  porter  au 


TENDERNESS    AND    SYMPATHY.  75 

opinion,  probably  true,  but  possibly  mistaken. 
We  need  not  read  through  Paul's  writings  to  see 
his  positive  conviction  of  the  truth  which  he 
preached,  though  that  conviction  is  evident 
enough  throughout.  We  can  read  it  at  Miletus 
in  his  tears.  But  then,  if  we  can,  on  the  one 
hand,  defy  heresy  to  explain  these  tears  of  St. 
Paul  without  the  truth  which  he  preached,  so, 
on  the   other   hand,   cold    orthodoxy  cannot   ex- 

monde  que  la  votre — votre  doctrine,  a  vous,  pleurer  de  ce  qu'elle 
n'est  past  recue  ?  et  qu'a-t-elle  dont  fait  pour  vous,  qui  vous  oblige 
a  tant  faire  pour  elle  ? ' — A.  Monod,  pp.  60-62.  To  the  same  effect 
de  Pressense  urges  that  St.  Paul  would  never  have  exposed  himself 
to  such  sufferings,  had  he  not  had  also  '  la  souffrance  de  l'amour 
compatissant  qui  bmle  de  se  repandre  sur  l'humanite  perdue  '  (p. 
287).  His  was  no  mere  vague  and  cloudy  faith,  such  as  would  have 
suited  a  '  sentimental  scepticism'  (p.  337)  :  'c'etait  cette  verite  an- 
cienne  et  toujours  nouvelle  de  la  redemption  d'une  race  perdue,  par 
le  sacrifice  de  '  l'Homme-Dieu.  C'est  au  nom  de  cette  croyance,  qui 
etait  pour  lui  une  conviction  profonde,  qu'il  a  supporte  toutes  les 
fatigues,  brave  tous  les  perils '  (p.  230).  If  he  had  had  no  fixed 
doctrine  to  teach,  he  never  would  have  disturbed  himself  or  the 
world  so  much :  '  La  religiosite  nuageuse  qui  ne  conclut  pas, 
n'affirme  aucun  dogme  '  .  .  .  may  produce  eloquent  philosophers 
and  pleasing  preachers  .  .  .  'jamais  elle  n' a  fail  un  missionnaire* 
(P-3  0- 


6  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 


plain  them  without  the  love  which  burnt  in  his 
heart.* 

But  there  is  a  sympathy  of  nature,  as  well  as  a 
sympathy  of  grace  :  and  St.  Paul  wept,  not  only 
through  the  pressure  of  suffering,  and  not  only  (to 
quote  our  own  poet's  words)  in  grief  over  c  souls 
that  will  not  be  redeemed/!  but  he  also  wept  under 
the  emotions  of  affection  and  friendship.  Meetings 
and  partings  were  significant  realities  to  him.  Not 
merely  had  he  a  warm  human  heart,  but  it  was  a 
most  sensitive  and  easily-agitated  heart.  Friend- 
ships were  among  the  supports  of  his  life. 
Mark,  for  instance,  his  discriminating  messages 
to  individuals,  and  his  specific  prayers  according  to 
the  necessity  and  character  of  each.  J  One  subject, 
which  will  come  under  consideration  in  another  of 
this  short  course  of  Lectures,  is  the  large  space  of 
time  which  St.  Paul  spent  in  prayer. §     We  natu- 

*  '  Nous  defions  l'heresie  d'expliquer  les  larmes  de  saint  Paul, 
sans  la  verite  qu'il  proclame  :  souffrons  qu'elle  nous  defie  a  son 
tour  de  les  expliquer,  sans  la  charito  qui  Fanime.' — A.  Monod,  pp 
64,  65. 

f  '  The  Christian  Year,'  Nineteenth  Sunday  after  Trinity. 

%  See  Rom.  xvi.,  Col.  iv.,  2  Tim.  i.  iv.  §  See  Lect.  IV. 


TENDERNESS    AND    SYMPATHY.  JJ 


rally  wonder,  in  a  life  of  such  activity,  how  the 
requisite  leisure  could  he  found.  Perhaps  the  in- 
tensity of  his  friendships  supplies  part  of  the 
solution  of  this  affecting  problem.* 

The  train  of  thought  which  (borrowing  partly 
from  the  words  of  the  preacher  himself)  I  have 
endeavoured  in  a  slight  sketch  to  indicate,  might 
have  been  carried  much  farther  in  the  same  di- 
rection. Especially  it  might  have  been  observed 
(had  it  fallen  within  his  plan,  as  it  partly  falls 
within  mine)  that  the  incidental  passages  on  which 
this  criticism  of  character  rests  might  have  been 
traced  through  the  Epistles  as  well  as  in  the  Acts. 
And  I  almost  wonder  that  this  bare  fact  at  least 
was  not  noticed :  for  it  is  most  interesting  to  be 
conscious  that  the  same  heart  is  beating,  that  the 
same  eyes  are  filling  with  tears,  whether  we  look 

*  «  Les  Eglises  sans  nombre  qu'il  a  fondees  ne  comptent  pas  un 
membre  qui  ne  trouve  sa  place  dans  ces  priercs,  dont  la  frequence 
ctonne  presque  autant  que  leur  ferveur.  On  se  demande  ou  I'Apo- 
tie  trouvait  le  temps  (pour  ne  parler  que  du  temps)  de  prier  si  con- 
stamment  pour  tant  de  monde :  et  la  tendresse  inepuisable  de  son 
ame  entre  assurement  pour  sa  large  part  dans  la  solution  de  ce 
touchant  probleme.' — A.  Monod,  p.  69 


78  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

at  St.  Paul  in  his  friend's  narrative,  or  in  his  own 
letters.  In  writing  that  second  Epistle  to  the 
Corinthians,  his  words  are :  c  Out  of  much  afflic- 
tion and  anguish  of  heart  I  wrote  to  you  with 
many  tears,  not  that  you  should  be  grieved,  but 
that  ye  might  know  my  love/*  Here  is  the  same 
pouring  out  of  his  own  heart  into  the  hearts  of  his 
disciples  which  we  saw  at  Miletus.  And,  again, 
long  afterwards  he  tells  the  Philippians — f  tells 
them  even  weeping — of  those  who  are  the  enemies 
of  the  cross  of  Christ,  whose  glory  is  in  their  shame, 
whose  end  is  destruction.^  Here  is  exactly  the 
same  weeping  over  obstinate  sinners  and  their 
hopeless  doom,  which  there  was  so  eloquent  of  the 
terrible  responsibility  under  which  men  hear  the 
Gospel.  Thus  to  what  was  heard  by  the  Ephesian 
elders  on  the  Asiatic  shore,  we  add  what  was 
written  from  Macedonia  to  Corinth,  and  from 
Rome  to  Philippi — and  are  able  largely  to  enrich 
our  illustration  of  the  truth — that,  however  St. 
Paul  had  the  prospect  of  (  reaping  with  joy/ \  how- 

*  2  Cor.  ii.4.         f  Phil.  iii.  18.         %  Ps.  cxxvi.  5,  6. 


TENDERNESS  AND  SYMPATHY.      79 

ever  '  precious '  the  seed  which  he  carried  with 
him,  yet  everywhere  he  '  went  on  his  way  weep- 
ing/ he  '  sowed  in  tears/ 

But,  again,  it  should  be  noticed,  that  in  the 
third  instance  of  weeping  adduced  from  the  nar- 
rative of  the  interview  at  Miletus,  it  is  not  Paul's 
tears,  but  the  tears  of  others,  which  are  mentioned. 
No  doubt  he  blended  his  own  weeping  with  theirs. 
Whenever  sympathy  was  felt  for  him,  that  sym- 
pathy was  always  reciprocal.  But  that  which  is 
put  before  us  is  rather  their  grief  at  the  prospect  of 
losing  sight  of  him  whom  they  loved  so  well,  and 
on  whom  they  felt  spiritually  so  dependent.  Nor 
is  this  the  only  instance  of  the  kind.  If  we  follow 
the  narrative  a  little  farther,  we  are  sure  that  tears 
are  implied,  if  not  expressly  mentioned — especially 
when  we  notice  the  force  of  the  true  reading* — in 
the  account  of  the  parting  at  Tyre.f  But  soon 
again  what  is  said  at  Caesarea  is  unequivocal. 
'  What  mean  ye  to  weep  and  to  break  mine  heart  ? 

*  '  We  prayed  and  tore  ourselves  away  from  one  another,'  would 
give  the  sense  of  the  correct  text. 
f  Acts  xxi.  6. 


80  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

for  I  am  ready  not  to  be  bound  only,  but  also  to 
die  for  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus/*  Here  we 
clearly  perceive  both  his  emotion  and  theirs — and 
how  the  storm  of  their  grief  shook  his  feelings, 
though  it  could  not  bend  his  resolution.  And  at 
this  point,  again,  as  at  all  points,  the  Acts  and  the 
Epistles  are  in  harmony.  In  the  passage  I  have 
read  for  my  own  short  text,  the  reference  is  to  the 
tears  of  Timothy,  not  the  tears  of  Paul.  The 
whole  verse  runs  thus:  '  Greatly  desiring  to  see 
thee,  being  mindful  of  thy  tears,  that  I  may  be 
filled  with  joy/  Nothing  could  be  more  expres- 
sive of  the  tenderness  of  friendship,  the  grief  of 
separation,  the  cherished  remembrance  of  their 
last  parting.  As  to  where  and  when  that  parting 
was,  into  such  details  we  need  not  enter.  Many 
a  tear  was  shed  in  those  Apostolic  journeys,  in 
that  life  of  martyrdom,  of  which  no  record  was 
kept.  It  is  enough  for  us  here  that  we  have  in 
these  words  a  good  starting-point  for  examining 
that  feature  of  St.   PauPs  character  which  I  pro- 

*  Acts  xxi.  13. 


TENDERNESS    AND    SYMPATHY.  OI 

pose  for  our  present  consideration.  Last  Sunday 
we  had  before  us  his  tact  and  presence  of  mind. 
To-day  let  us  observe  his  tenderness  and  sijmpathy. 
If  it  is  true  that  he  became  '  all  things  to  all  men  '* 
with  singular  versatility  and  ease — a  Gentile  to 
the  Gentile,  a  Jew  to  the  Jew,  an  Athenian  in 
Greece,  'a  Hebrew  of  the  Hebrews'  on  the  stairs 
at  Jerusalem — at  one  time  rising  in  royal  grandeur 
to  a  level  above  Festus  and  Agrippa,  at  another 
e  condescending  to  men  of  low  estate/-}*  down  to 
such  as  Philemon's  fugitive  slave — it  is  true  like- 
wise that,  wherever  we  follow  him,  'he  rejoiced 
with  them  that  rejoiced/ J  and  especially  that  *"  he 
wept  with  them  that  wept.'§ 

*   i  Cor.  ix.  22.         f  Rom.  xii.  16.         %  lb.  15. 

§  St.  Bernard,  in  two  of  his  wonderful  sermons  on  the  Canticles, 
speaks  of  compassio  and  congratulations  the  twin-fountains  of  Chris- 
tian sympathy,  and  that  with  special  reference  to  St.  Paul.—  Ber- 
nardi  Opera,  Ed.  Mabillon.  i.  col.  1291,  141 8.  Bernard  was  re- 
markable for  his  love  of  the  character  and  writings  of  St.  Paul ;  and 
an  instructive  parallel  might  be  drawn  between  the  two  men.  They 
were  alike  in  their  delicate  health,  in  their  practical  tendency,  in 
their  union  of  eagerness,  firmness,  and  sensitiveness,  in  their  habit 
of  unwearied  work,  in  their  power  of  exerting  influence,  especially 
through  the  writing  of  letters,  and  in  the  affectionateness  which 

G 


82  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

Three  short  remarks  may  be  allowed,  before  we 
pass  onward  into  the  heart  of  the  subject. 

The  first  remark  is  this  : — that  sympathy  is  itself 
one  great  secret  of  tact,  that  a  tender  heart  often 
creates  presence  of  mind.  You  wish  to  speak  to  a 
friend  of  his  sins.  How  difficult  a  task  that  is ! 
How  certain  you  are  to  fail,  if  you  speak  in  a  harsh 
and  censorious  spirit !  Yet  how  can  you  safely 
neglect  the  duty  ?  Or  you  go  to  comfort  a  friend 
in  his  sorrow.  But  how  to  find  precisely  the 
right  kind  of  comfort  for  that  particular  case  ? — 

brought  round  each  of  them  a  large  circle  of  friends.  The  tears  of 
the  friends  of  Bernard  are  prominently  mentioned  at  a  critical  point 
of  his  life  ;  'When  Bernard  and  his  twelve  monks  silently  took  their 
departure,  you  might  have  seen  tears  in  the  eyes  of  all  present,  while 
nothing  was  to  be  heard  but  the  voices  of  those  who  were  singing 
hymns  ;  and  even  those  brethren  could  not  repress  their  sobs.  Those 
who  remained  and  those  who  departed  were  all  involved  in  one  com- 
mon sorrow.' — Neander  (quoting  from  the  Cistercian  Chronicle)  in 
his  '  Life  of  St.  Bernard  '  (Eng.  trans,  p.  14).  To  this  may  be  added 
a  passage  from  one  of  the  contemporary  Lives  :  '  Germanicis  etiam 
populis  loquens  miro  audiebatur  affectu  ;  et  ex  sermone  ejus  (quern 
intelligere,  utpote  alterius  linguae  homines,  non  valebant)  aedificari 
illorum  devotio  videbatur :  cujus  rei  cei  ta  probatio  erat  effusio  lacry- 
marum.' — S.  Bern.  Vita,  auctore  Gaufrido  Monacho  Clarae-Val- 
lensi,  iii.  3,  7. 


TENDERNESS    AND    SYMPATHY.  83 

The  very  tones  of  the  voice  will  make  all  the 
difference  beween  wounding  and  healing.  '  Con- 
sidering thyself,  lest  thou  also  be  tempted/*  '  as 
being  yourselves  also  in  the  body/f  Here  are  the 
roots  and  principles  of  judicious  rebuke  and  suc- 
cessful consolation :  so  that  the  subject-matter  of 
this  discourse  may  contain  much  of  the  explana- 
tion of  what  was  noticed  in  the  former. 

And  this  leads  to  a  second  observation — viz., 
that  in  blending  the  two  features  together,  promp- 
titude and  judgment  on  the  one  hand,  with 
tender-hearted  sympathy  on  the  other,  the  latter 
very  considerably  modifies  the  former,  softening 
down  and  smoothing  its  harsher  and  abrupter 
lines.  I  can  easily  imagine  that  a  sermon  dwell- 
ing exclusively  on  the  former  feature  might  create 
a  false  impression,  as  though  a  certain  clever 
adroitness  were  held  to  be  the  main  characteristic 
of  St.  Paul.  This  is  an  obvious  difficulty  in 
separate  sermons  on  a  complex  character.  Some- 
thing, however,  very  different  is  now  before  us  : 

*  Gal.  vi.  1.  f  Heb.  xiii.  3. 

G    % 


84  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

and  the  two  must  be  combined.  It  is  only  by  a 
series  of  successive  touches  that  a  portrait  can  be 
completed. 

And  then,  thirdly,  both  in  this  sympathy,  and 
in  the  tact  itself  viewed  as  arising  out  of  sympathy, 
we  begin  to  draw  more  closely  than  before  to  the 
religious  side  of  the  Apostle's  character.  It  is  not 
easy  indeed,  even  here,  to  draw  the  line  precisely. 
Sympathy  may  be  purely  natural.  Tact,  again, 
mav  arise  from  religious  feeling.  But  this  at  least 
is  true,  that  (whatever  unassisted  nature  may  be 
able  sometimes  to  produce)  there  is  no  surer  mark 
of  Christianity  than  sympathy — in  fact,  that  with- 
out some  sympathy  there  is  no  true  Christianity. 

Now  as  to  the  fact  that  tenderness  and  sym- 
pathy were  a  characteristic  of  St.  Paul,  it  will  be 
conceded  at  once,  in  general  terms,  that  he  was 
conspicuously  marked  by  a  warm  affectionateness 
of  nature — and  also  that  the  same  feature  comes 
into  view  both  in  the  Acts  and  the  Epistles — and 
further,  that  it  displays  itself  both  in  feeling 
towards   churches    collectively    and    in    personal 


TENDERNESS    AND    SYMPATHY.  85 

friendships.  This  is  an  immediate  result  of  even 
a  superficial  examination  of  the  documents  of 
the  New  Testament.  But  it  is  desirable  to  go 
more,  deeply  into  the  subject — to  scan  this  feature 
more  closely — to  discover,  if  possible,  the  precise 
form  of  this  affection  and  its  hidden  springs. 
Thus  shall  we  be  better  able  afterwards  to  combine 
it  with  other  parts  of  the  Apostle's  character. 

In  order  to  accomplish  this,  our  best  course  is, 
I  think,  in  the  first  place,  to  endeavour  to  see  Paul 
in  his-  weakness*  And  I  use  this  term  advisedly 
and  with  a  literal  meaning:  for  in  the  harmony 
of  that  complicated  personality  there  is  ever  an 
undertone  of  human  weakness ;  in  the  picture  of 
that  wonderful   and   varied  activity  there  is  ever 

*  A.  Monod,  after  pointing  out  that  St.  P.  ul  had  in  certain 
respects  '  une  preparation  de  force'  for  his  mission,  proceeds: 
'  Sa  preparation  distinctive,  celle  qui  donne  le  mot  d'enigme 
de  cette  grand  vie,  celle  qui  a  fait  de  saint  Paul  un  saint  Paul,  c'est 
line  preparation  de  faiblesse  .  .  .  Sans  ses  faiblesses,  il  n'aurait 
plus  ete  lui-meme,  parcequ'il  n'aurait  pas  ete,  dans  la  plus  haute 
portee  du  mot,  l'horame  de  la  foi '  (p.  124).  And  especially  with 
regard  to  his  weakness  of  health  :  '  Avec  un  corps  plus  sain  et  une 
constitution  plus  vigoureuse,  Paul  n'aurait  tremble  comme  il  a  trem- 
ble, desespeie  de  lui-meme  comme  il  en  a  desespere,  crie  a  Dieu 
comme  il  a  crie,  ni  par  consequent  aussi  fait  ce  qu'il  a  fait'  (p*  130). 


86  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

this  sober  colouring  in  the  background.  To  dis- 
criminate completely — to  distinguish  always  ac- 
curately the  sound  of  those  lower  notes — to  see  all 
those  softer  shades  separately  from  the  glory  of 
Divine  power  which  rests  upon  his  life — this,  no 
doubt,  is  impracticable.  Yet  a  rapid  glance  at  a 
few  particulars  will  be  both  useful  and  safe :  and 
we  need  not  doubt  that  we  shall  thus  obtain,  if 
only  an  approximate,  yet  still  a  very  instructive 
result. 

Now,  in  the  first  place,  there  is  no  doubt 
that  Paul  suffered  much  from  some  weakness  of 
bod  Hi/  health.  It  has  at  times  been  the  fashion  to 
represent  this  Apostle  as  a  robust  missionary,  deal- 
ing fierce  blows  on  every  side  with  that  sword 
which  is  his  conventional  symbol  * — as  hardly 
sensible  of  fatigue — never  depressed — never  dis- 
couraged. This  is  certainly  a  mistake.  Not 
thus,  not  like  some  hero  of  the  old  Mythology, 
not  like  a  knight  errant  ol  the  Middle  Ages,  did 
Paul  accomplish  and  secure  his  victories.     '  When 

*  See  Lecture  V. 


TENDERNESS    AND    SYMPATHY.  87 


I  am  weak,  then  am  I  strong '  * — this,  his  own 
phrase,  might  be  taken  as  the  motto  of  his  life. 
Now,  indeed,  it  seems  as  if  we  were  called  to  be- 
ware of  a  reaction. f  It  is  quite  possible  to  fall 
into  an  extreme  on  the  opposite  side.  Surely  we 
are  not  to  imagine  Paul  of  Tarsus  as  travelling, 
year  after  year,  in  the  decrepitude  of  a  mere 
invalid.       This    would    be    absolutely    contradic- 

*  2  Cor.  xii.  10. 

f  It  is  observable  that  in  the  recent  portraitures  of  St.  Paul  this 
element  of  bodily  feebleness  has  generally  occupied  a  prominent 
place.  See,  for  instance,  Besser,  pp.  11-13.  But  in  Professor 
Jowett's  '  Fragment  on  the  Character  of  St.  Paul '  (Epistles  to  the 
Thessalonians,  etc.,  with  Critical  Notes,  etc.) — in  the  midst  of  much 
that  is  beautiful  and  true,  I  feel  sure  that  there  are  passages  quite 
one-sided,  exaggerated,  and  unreal.  I  have  not  had  access  to  his 
second  edition :  but  I  believe  that  some  of  the  phrases  have  been 
modified,  which  were  quoted  in  the  earlier  editions  of  these  Lec- 
tures, especially  where  it  was  said  that  '  St.  Paul  must  have  appeared 
to  the  rest  of  mankind  like  a  visionary,'  and  when  he  is  described  as 
a  poor  decrepit  being,  afflicted  perhaps  with  palsy.  I  venture 
to  think  that  what  has  been  brought  forward  in  Lecture  I.  is  decisive 
as  to  his  clear  calm  judgment :  and  it  would  surely  be  impossible, 
without  a  continued  miracle,  for  a  man  with  the  palsy  to  carry  on 
for  many  years  incessant  journeys,  involving  hardships  of  every  kind 
in  the  midst  of  a  perpetual  mental  strain. 


88  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

tory  to  the  facts  of  his  life,  whether  we  take 
them  from  the  general  narrative  of  St.  Luke,  or 
from  the  fragment  of  his  own  experience  (above 
alluded  to)  as  given  by  himself.*  We  shall  see 
this  at  once,  if  we  recall  to  mind  four  scenes 
from  four  very  marked  periods,  separated  by  con- 
siderable intervals — the  return  through  Lvcaonia 
after  the  stoning  at  Lystra,f  the  travelling  south- 
wards after  the  ill-treatment  at  Philippi,  his  soli- 
tary journey,  in  a  time  of  much  depression,  from 
Troas  to  Assos,  and  his  attitude  on  board  the 
Alexandrian  ship  after  fourteen  days  of  the  storm. 
But  there  are  many  most  pressing  trials   of  bodily 

*  2Cor.xi.  It  cannot  be  too  carefully  noted  that  this  enumeration  of 
his  trials,  toils,  and  sufferings  synchronises  with  the  first  verse  of  the 
20th  chapter  of  the  Acts.  Thus  the  three  shipwrecks,  the  frequent 
imprisonments,  are  exclusive  of  what  is  recorded  in  the  latter  pait  of 
that  book,  and  of  all  that  succeeded  his  first  trial  at  Rome.  Dean 
Stanley  remarks  most  justly  ( '  Coiinthians '  p.  562)  that  this 
chapter  represents  a  life  of  self-devotion  for  the  interest  of  mankind 
at  large,  '  previously  without  precedent  in  the  history  of  the  world,' 
and  also  that  the  biography  in  the  Acts  is  much  confirmed  by  its 
underrating  of  the  Apostle's  difficulties  and  sufferings. 

f  Acts  xiv.  20,  21.     lb.  xvi.  40  ;  xvii.  1.     lb.  xx.  13.     lb.  xxvii. 


TENDERNESS    AND    SYMPATHY.  89 

weakness  quite  consistent  with  much  activity.* 
Thus  when  a  man  longs  to  work  hard,  and 
(though  he  does  much)  yet  cannot  do  as  much  as 

*  Probably  no  two  men  could  be  mentioned,  who  more 
admirably  combined,  like  St.  Paul,  incessant  activity  and  toil 
with  habitual  bodily  suffering,  than  King  Alfred  and  St.  Ber- 
nard. Dr.  Pauli's  words  of  our  Anglo-Saxon  King  night  almost 
be  used  of  the  Apostle :  *  Mit  dem  Namen  Aelfreds  verbindet 
sich  uns  nicht  der  Gedanke  an  eine  kolossale  Figur ;  wir  glauben 
vielmehr  uns  eine  untersetzte,  urspriinglich  kiaftig  gesunde 
Gestalt  vergegenwartigen  zu  diirfen,  deren  Zahigkeit  in  jahre- 
janger  Krankheit  und  haufiger  korperlicher  Anstrengung  sich 
lange  bewahrte  .  .  .  Aber  mit  unvergleichlicher  Standhaftigkeit 
wuste  Aelfred  diesem  Uebel,  welches  er  als  von  Gott  gesandt  be- 
trachtete,  zu  begegnen.  .  .  .  Ein  gesunder,  regsamer,  ja  schwungvol- 
ler  Geist  bemeisterte  stets  den  gebrechlichen  Kbrper.' — Pauli, 
'  Konig  Aelfred,'  p.  294.  To  complete  the  parallel,  it  ought  to  be 
added  that  Alfred  prayed  earnestly  to  be  delivered  from  this  trial. 
*  He  entreated  of  God's  mercy,  that  in  His  boundless  clemency  He 
would  exchange  these  torments  for  some  lighter  disease  ;  but  with 
this  condition  that  it  should  not  show  itself  outwardly,  lest  he 
should  be  an  olject  of  contempt,  and  less  able  to  benefit  mankind ; 
for  he  had  a  great  dread  of  any  such  complaint  as  makes  men  zise- 
less  or  contemptible.'' — Asser's  '  Life  of  Alfred  '  (in  Bonn's  '  Six  Old 
English  Chronicles,'  p.  67).  Bernard  suffered  like  Alfred  in  early 
life — even  then  he  was 'juvenis  exesi  corporis  et  moribundi.'  See 
Mr.  Morison's  '  Life  and  Times  of  the  Abbot  of  Clairvaux,'  p.  34. 
The  general  account  of  his  life-long  sufferings  given  by  the  contem- 
porary biographer,  William  of  St.  Thierry,  may  well  be  applied  to 
our  present  subject :  '  Quis  enim  nostra  aetate,  quantumvis  robusti 


9<3  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

he  would,  this  is  a  trial  which  idle  men  hardly 
understand.  The  mere  liability  to  frequent  inter- 
ruptions of  health  is  no  light  sorrow.  Something 
of  this  kind  we  can  trace  on  one  of  the  Apostle's 
journeys;  for  I  hold  that  the  right  translation  of 
that  passage  in  the  Galatians*  is  undoubtedly 
this — that  it  was  '  because  of  sickness  that  he  staid 
among  them  at  the  first : }  and  his  meeting  almost 
immediately  afterwards  with  'Luke  the  beloved 
physician  ■'  is  a  coincidence  not  lightly  to  be 
overlooked. f  How  bitterly  Paul  felt  this  kind  of 
trial  is  evident  from  that  other  passage,  where  he 
calls  this  ( thorn  in  the  flesh '  a  '  minister  of 
Satan/  recognizing  in  it  a  shaft  from  the  mys- 

corporis  et  accuratae  valetudinis,  tanta  aliquando  fecit,  quanta  iste  fecit 
et  facit  moribundus  et  languidus  ad  honorem  Dei  et  Sanctaa  Ecclesiae 
utilitatem  ? '  And  all  is  summed  up  in  what  might  be  a  Latin  transla- 
tion of  2  Cor.  xii.  10  :  'Virtus  Dei  in  infirmitate  ejus  refulgens.' — 
Bernardi  Opera,  ii.  1079. 

*  I  cannot  for  a  moment  think  with  Professor  Jowett  that  there  is  in 
St.  Paul  that  looseness  in  the  use  of  prepositions,  which  would  make 
St'  aadtveiav  in  Gal.  iv.  13,  equivalent  to  Si'  aaOevelas.  See  Bishop 
Ellicott's  Essay  in  the  'Aids  to  Faith,'  p.  466. 

f  Col.  iv.  14.     See  '  The  Companions  of  St.  Paul,'  p.  60. 


TENDERNESS    AND    SYMPATHY.  (}[ 

terious  dark  side  of  this  perplexing  life.*  What- 
ever the  affliction  was,  it  was  something  which  to 
our  unsubdued  impatience  would  have  been  a 
perpetual  source  of  mortification  and  vexation, 
though  to  him  it  became,  through  grace,  a  source 
of  triumph ;  for — to  complete  the  context  of  the 
passage  which  I  have  ventured  to  call  his  motto — 
he  ( thrice  prayed  that  the  suffering  might  be 
removed  from  him/f  and  the  prayer  was  granted 
by  being  turned  into  a  thanksgiving  :  \  for  the 
answer  was,  '  My  grace  is  sufficient  for  thee  :  for 
my  strength  is  made  perfect  in  weakness/     '  Most 

*  There  can  be  no  reason  why  we  should  hesitate  to  identify  (with 
Paley,  Horse  Paul.,  Gal.  No.  iv.)  the  acrQiveia  rrjs  <ja.pK.hs  of  Gal.  iv. 
13,  and  the  cuoko-ty  ttj  o~apKl  of  2  Cor.  xii.  7.  Four  things  may 
be  said  with  cnfidtnce  o\  this  affliction  :  First,  that  it  was  not  any 
prevalent  temptation  to  commit  sin  ;  secondly,  that  it  was  some  bodily 
suffering  or  disease ;  thirdly,  that  it  was  attended  with  depressing 
and  humiliating  circumstances  ;  fourthly,  that  it  was  not  transient, 
but  continuous  or  frequent,  and,  so  to  speak,  chronic.  All  else 
must  be  left  in  doubt :  and  this  is  not  a  loss  to  us,  but  an  advantage. 
How  many  of  God's  afflicted  servants  have  been  brought  nearer  to 
St.  Paul  by  sharing  with  him  some  constant  trial,  and  thus  bi ought 
closer  also  to  the  Truth  which  he  taught  and  by  which  he  lived  '. 

*j"  2  Cor.  xii.  8.  J  See  Lecture  IV. 


93  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

gladly,  therefore/  he  adds,  (  will  I  glory  in  my  in- 
firmities/* 

What  this  particular  form  of  weakness  and  suf- 
fering was  we  shall  (in  this  world)  never  know. 
It  is  easy  enough  to  conjecture,  but  impossible  to 
prove.  Those  who  have  been  brought  by  medita- 
tion and  study,  and  by  some  experience,  into  close 
personal  sympathy,  as  it  were,  with  St.  Paul,  will 
imagine  it  to  be  that  particular  form  of  weakness 
(whatever  it  may  be)  from  which  they  themselves 
suffer  most.  I  think  that  something  of  this  kind 
may  be  traced  in  the  commentators.  And  here  I 
cannot  but  regard  this  indefiniteness  as  a  blessing 
to  be  thankful  for.  We  all  know  what  suffering 
is.  Vexatious  hindrances — the  sense  of  defective 
energy — weariness  overpowering  the  will — these 
things  fret  and  disappoint  us.  Thus  we  are  all 
able,  in  our  times  of  depression,  by  a  lawful 
exercise  of  imagination,  to  place  ourselves  (so  far 
as  weakness  is  concerned)  in  St.  Paul's  position, 
and  gain  some  benefit  to  ourselves  from  his  bitter 
experience. 

*  2  Cor.  xii.  9. 


TENDERNESS    AND    SYMPATHY.  93 

For,  after  all,  the  essential  point  is,  not  what  the 
trial  was  in  itself,  but  what  it  was  to  him,  what  he 
(subjectively)  felt  it  to  be.  We  often  feel  our 
trials  far  more  than  would  be  supposed  possible  by 
others,  who  see  us  only  from  without.  If  we  had 
beheld  St.  Paul,  he  might  have  appeared  (to  us) 
brave,  enough.  We  might  have  had  no  conception 
of  his  inward  sense  of  feebleness.  Nay,  we  often 
imagine  evils  to  be  far  worse  than  they  are — and 
certainly  they  are  none  the  less  on  this  account 
very  serious  realities  to  us.  It  is  quite  allowable 
to  suppose  that  St.  Paul,  under  the  influence  of  a 
sensitive  temperament,  exaggerated  the  effects  of 
the  trial  in  question.  The  main  point  (as  I  have 
said)  was  the  effect  on  the  Apostle's  mind  :  and 
that  effect  was  humiliation.*     He  thought  the  Ga- 

*  St.  Paul's  humility  must  be  viewed  as  in  a  great  measure  the 
result  of  this  discipline  :  and  it  is  very  instructive  to  follow  in  de- 
tail the  steps  of  the  severe  training  to  which  he  was  subjected.  As 
to  humiliation  before  God,  we  should  notice  the  mode  in  which  at 
his  conversion  he  was  sent  into  Damascus,  there  to  he  told  what  he 
should  do  (Acts  ix.  6,  xxii.  10),  and  then  the  pause  and  the  abase- 
ment of  the  '  three  days'  (lb.  ix.  9).  As  to  humiliation  before  man, 
how  significant  are  the  facts  that  it  was  only  through  the  instrumen- 


94  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

latians  would  despise  him  :  perhaps  he  was  mis- 
taken in  supposing  that  they  would  do  so ;  but  this 
does  not  affect  our  argument.  The  points  for  our 
consideration  are  these :  first,  that  he  felt  the 
humiliation;  and  next,  that  he  was  not  ashamed 
to  express  the  feeling. 

Again,  there  is  a  more  definite  and  special  kind 
of  humiliation  brought  before  our  notice  elsewhere 
— whether  connected  or  not  with  the  former  we 
need  not  inquire.  If  generally  he  was  mean  and 
weak  l  in  presence/*  he  was  specifically  accused  by 
his  enemies  of  being  rude  and  even  contemptible 
'  in  speech. '-f  Such  accusations  (however  exagge- 
rated and  malignant)  usually  rest  on  realities  :  and 
it  seems  evident  from  the  tone  in  which  St.  Paul 

tality  of  Ananias  that  he  was  introduced  into  the  full  blessings  of 
Christianity,  and  that  when  he  came  to  his  fellow-Christians  at 
Jerusalem,  he  was  only  received  under  the  shelter  of  Barnabas  (lb. 
ix.  27)  \  And  this  providential  course  of  humiliation  may  be  traced 
through  his  later  life,  especially  in  what  is  mentioned  above.  Such 
discipline  might  be  peculiarly  necessary  for  St.  Paul ;  for  one  of  his 
prevailing  temptations  might  be  the  desire  of  gaining  personal  in- 
fluence over  the  minds  of  others. 

*  2  Cor.  x.  1,  10.  f  lb.  x.  10,  xi.  6. 


TENDERNESS    AND    SYMPATHY.  95 

speaks  (twice)  on  the  subject,  that  he  accepted  the 
abasement  without  denying  that  there  was  ground 
for  it.  And  a  hard  trial  it  is  (as  many  know),  in 
a  work  which  depends  on  influence  exerted  over 
the  minds  of  others,  to  be  checked  at  every  turn 
through  wanting  the  accomplishment  of  public 
speech.  Such  was  the  trial  also  of  Moses,  and 
such  will  probably  be  the  experience  of  some  in 
this  University,  when  they  are  hereafter  engaged 
in  the  work  of  the  Sacred  Ministry.  It  is  well  to 
learn,  from  the  examples  of  Moses  and  of  Paul 
how  our  natural  dearth  and  dryness  may  be  turned 
into  a  fountain  of  vigour.* 

*  That  the  personal  appearance  of  St.  Paul  was  mean  and  in- 
significant can  hardly  be  doubted.  Luther's  description  ('  ein  armes 
diirres  Mannlein,  wie  Magister  Philippus')  probably  conveys  a  true 
impression,  though  it  might  have  been  given  with  a  little  more 
reverence.  Another  place  will  be  found  for  a  notice  of  the  forms 
under  which  he  is  represented  in  Art.  See  Lecture  V.  The  tradi- 
tionary notices  of  his  appearance — the  short  stature,  bald  head,  large 
eyebrows,  clear  grey  eyes,  aquiline  nose  and  Greek  oval  face— are 
consistent,  and  probably  rest  on  fact :  and  they  appear  in  the  earliest 
artistic  representations.  I  cannot  understand  a  remark  made  by  A. 
Monod  (p.  135).  After  saying  that  most  painters  have  represented 
this  Apostle  with  all  the  marks  of  a  vigorous  constitution  and  great 


g6  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

To  turn  now  to  another  point;  most  of  us  are 
under  the  impression  that  St.  Paul  was  eminently 
marked  by  courage.  This  subject  will  be  fully 
considered  in  a  later  discourse*  Here  I  only  desire 
to  raise  a  question  which  we  are  in  danger  of 
answering  hastily.  Is  it  quite  certain  that  he  was 
conspicuous  even  for  physical  courage?  And  if  we 
assume  that  c  perils  in  the  wilderness,  perils  in  the 
sea/  were  indifferent  to  him,  can  we  confidently 
say  the  same  of  '  perils  by  his  own  countrymen, 
perils  among  false  brethren  ? '      Are  we  sure  that 

physical  force,  he  adds,  *  Mais  on  sdt  que  Raphael  l'a  peint  autre- 
ment:  e'est  qu'il  s' est  inspire,  pour  peindre  saint  Paul,  du  portrait 
que  saint  Paul  a  fait  de  lui-meme,  dans  cette  seconde  epltre  aux 
Corinthiens,  si  precieuse  par  les  echappees  qu'elle  nous  ouvre  sur  la 
personne  de  l'Apotre  et  sur  son  caractere.'  It  appears  to  me  that, 
however  grand  and  eloquent  the  Cartoons  may  be,  they  are  certainly 
not  in  harmony  with  what  St.  Paul  says  of  himself,  or  with  the 
types  of  the  early  painters.  See  '  Life  and  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,'  i.  pp 
270,  271,  and  Mrs.  Jameson's  '  Sacred  and  Legendary  Art,'  pp.  158— 
202.  I  have  seen  no  representation  of  St.  Paul  which  seems  to  me 
to  contain  so  much  of  his  real  character  as  Mr.  Woolner's  composi- 
tion (known  to  me  only  through  a  photograph)  for  the  pulpit  of 
Llandaff  Cathedral.  The  expression,  as  I  read  it,  is  that  of  tender- 
ness and  persuasiveness,  intense  suffering  and  intense  earnestness. 
*  See  Lecture  V.  f  2  Cor.  xi.  26. 


TENDERNESS    AND    SYMPATHY.  97 

it  cost  him  no  struggle  to  summon  to  the  front  of 
the  battle  that  moral  courage  which  enables  a  man 
to  oppose  his  friends,  to  incur  suspicion,  to  face 
contempt,  to  rally  after  disappointment  ?  Is  there 
not,  on  the  whole,  very  good  proof  that  he  was 
well  acquainted  With,  fear,  literal  fear?  Does  he 
not  say  of  himself,  when  he  was  at  Corinth  the 
first  time,  that  he  was  '  in  weakness  and  fear  and 
much  trembling  ? '  *  No  doubt  this  phrase  denotes 
chiefly  the  sense  of  anxious  responsibility.f  But 
then  this  is  not  the  only  passage  that  can  be 
quoted  in  illustration  of  the  point.  What  mean 
those  visions  three  times  repeated,  and  always  at 
critical  times,  ' Fear  not,  Paul;  be  of  good  cheer; 
be  not  afraid/%  in  the  very  language  addressed  to 

*  1   Cor.  ii.  3. 

f  The  other  places  where  fear  and  trembling  are  used  in  conjunc- 
tion are  2  Cor.  vii.  15,  Eph.vi.  5,  Phil.  ii.  iz.  Of  all  the  passages  in 
common  it  may  be  said  that  the  Christian  grace  of  self-distrust  is 
put  forward,  as  opposed  to  the  human  virtue  of  self-confidence.  But 
I  think  the  further  element  of  actual  timidity  can  be  traced  in  1  Cor. 
ii.  3.  Such  also  was  Chrysostom's  view  ;  and  he  must  have  had  an 
instinctive  sense  of  the  meaning  of  the  Greek  phrase,  to  say  nothing 
of  his  very  close  appreciation  of  St.  Paul's  character. 

X  -Acts  xviii  9,  xxiii.  11,  xxvii.  24. 

H 


98  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

the  disciples  on  the  Lake  of  Gennesareth  ?  and 
what  can  be  more  explicit  than  his  description  of 
his  experience  when  he  was  on  his  way  to  Corinth 
for  the  second  time — '  Without  were  fightings, 
within  were  fears  ?  '*  That  he  should  not  be 
ashamed  to  confess  this,  indicates,  I  think,  the 
reality  of  the  fact  as  well  as  his  remarkable  hu- 
mility, f 

However  this  may  be,  it  is  most  certain  that  he 
suffered  seriously  (and  probably  often)  from  de- 
pression of  spiritSj  and  that  he  makes  no  secret  of 
this.  In  all  St.  Paul's  life  there  is  no  more 
marked  indication  of  a  particular  state  of  mind 
(as  there  is  no  stronger  and  yet  more  delicate  link 
of  unity  between  the  Acts  and  the  Epistles)  than 
the  desponding  foreboding  state  of  mind  (asso- 
ciated indeed  with  the  utmost  tenacity  of  purpose) 
which  comes  to  view  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
Third  Missionary  Journey,  the  very  period  to 
which  our  attention  was  directed  at  the  outset. 

*  2  Cor.  vii.  5. 

f  See  pp.  93  and  108  for  notes  on  St.  Paul's  humility. 


TENDERNESS    AND    SYMPATHY.  99 

To  see  this,  we  have  only  to  read  in  succession 
what  has  just  been  adduced  (and  along  with  it 
other  passages)  from  the  Second  Epistle  to  the 
Corinthians — and  then  his  earnest  request  for  in- 
tercessory prayer  at  the  end  of  hi&  Epistle  to  the 
Romans — then  his  affecting;  words  at  Miletus — 
and  then  what  took  place  at  Tyre  and  afterwards 
at  Caesarea*  (as  we  have  already  seen),  on  the  way 
to  Jerusalem. f 

Connected  with  this  weakness  is  another  (if 
indeed  we  can  call  it  such)  in  the  Apostle  Paul — 
viz.,  a  natural  cravhigfor  personal  sympathy .  We 
might  gather  this,  in  the  very  earliest  of  his  letters, 
from  the  tone  in  which  he  speaks  of  being  left  at 
Athens  '  alone,'  and  prays  that  he  may  be  directed 
to  the  Thessalonians,  that  he  may  '  see  their  face 
again/ J  But  we  trace  it  most  distinctly  in  the  way 
in  which  he  clings  to   individuals,  as   shown   by 

*  Rom.  xv.  30,  31.    Acts  xx.  23,  25.    lb.  xxi.  5,  6.    lb.  12,  13. 

f  The  possibility  of  tracing  here  through  independent  documents 
a  consistent  state  of  feeling  is  an  '  evidence  '  of  some  considerable 
value. 

+   1  Thess.  iii.  1.     lb.  ic,  11. 

H    % 


ICO  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

several  of  the  later  letters.  How  he  longs  to  see 
Titus,  for  the  sake  of  meeting  whom  he  quits  an 
opportunity  of  much  usefulness  at  Troas  !  '  I 
had  no  rest  in  my  spirit,  because  I  found  not 
Titus  my  brother/*  What  evident  reluctance  there 
is  to  part  with  Onesimus  !  How  gladly  he  would 
have  retained  him,  if  he  could  with  any  propriety 
have  done  this  !  f  Ai.d  how  the  Epistle  from 
which  my  text  is  taken  abounds  in  indications  of 
this  kind  ! — c  Demas  hath  forsaken  me  ' — Demas, 
who  once  was  his  faithful  companion — '  All  in 
Asia  turned  aside  from  me  3\ — not  referring  to  any 
general  apostasy,  but  to  an  abandonment  of  him- 
self on  some  particular  occasion.  And  then  to 
Timothy  (not  without  some  misgivings§)  fDo 
thy  diligence  to  come  unto  me|| — Do  thy  diligence 
to  come  before  winter/** 

Now  here  I  have  just  quoted  three  very  different 
Epistles,  written  at  considerable  intervals.      And 

*  2  Cor.  ii.  14.     f  Philem.  11-14.     +  2  Tim.  i.  15. 
§  See  note  above,  on  the  character  of  Timothy,  p.  58. 
2  Tim.  iv.  9,  10.     **  lb.  21. 


TENDERNESS    AND    SYMPATHY.  IOI 

the  same  course  might  be  followed,  with  the  same 
results,  in  reference  to  a  feature  closely  connected 
with  the  last — I  mean  the  indications  of  wounded 
feeling,  as  shown  by  sudden  transitions  from  in- 
dignant expostulation  to  intreaty,  or  by  abrupt 
appeals  for  sympathy.*  Thus,  after  such  severe 
words  as  these : — c  We  are  fools,  but  ye  are  wise : 
we  are  weak,  but  ye  are  strong :  ye  are  honour- 
able, but  we  are  despised/f  immediately,  most 
tended v : — '  my  beloved  sons,  though  ye  have  ten 
thousand  instructors  in  Christ,  yet  have  ye  not 
many  fathers/ %  So  elsewhere  : — '  These  only  are 
my  fellow-workers,  who  have  been  a  comfort  to 
me :'  §  and  then  at  the  end  of  that  letter,  as  he 
signs  it  with  the  chain  on  his  arm  : — c  Remember 
my  bonds/||     And  elsewhere,  again  : — fAm  I  be- 

*  On  these  points,  as  on  many  others  noticed  in  these  Lectures, 
it  is  to  be  observed  that  nothing  of  the  same  kind  is  to  be  traced  in 
the  epistles  written  by  St.  John,  St.  Peter,  or  St.  James.  It  may 
indeed  be  said  that  those  letters  are  too  short  and  too  little  connected 
with  special  occasions,  to  give  scope  to  marked  exhibitions  of  cha- 
racter— still  the  contrast  exists,  and  is  worth  observing. 

t  i  Cor.iv.  10.         %  lb.  14,  15.         §  Col.  iv.  it.         ||  lb.  18. 


102  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

come  your  enemy  because  I  tell  you  the  truth  ?  '* 
and  asrain  at  the  end  of  that  other  letter  : — '  You 
see  the  characters  in  which  I  have  written  this 
with  my  own  handf — from  henceforth  let  no  man 
trouble  me :  for  I  bear  in  my  body  the  marks  of 
the  Lord  Jesus/  J  Here  once  more  I  have  quoted 
three  Epistles,  different  from  the  three  former : 
though  one  of  those  would  perhaps  still  have  been 
most  to  my  purpose.  There  is  in  fact  in  that 
Second  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians  a  perpetual  in- 
terchange of  shifting  tides  of  feeling,  which  makes 
it  one  of  the  most  difficult  of  all  the  books  of  the 
New  Testament. 

Another  weakness  'in  St.  Paul  (though  once 
more  I  feel  as  though  an  apology  were  needed  for 
the  word)  is  a  keen  sensitiveness  to  the  good  opinion 
of  others. §      'If  I  yet  desired   to  please   men,   I 

*  Gal.  iv.  1 6. 

f  There  is  a  strong  appeal  to  sympathy  in  this.  He  generally 
employed  an  amanuensis.  The  appeal  becomes  only  the  stronger, 
if  the  large  letters  refer,  as  I  imagine  they  do,  to  the  Apostle's  well- 
known  handwriting. 

X  Gal.  vi.  ii,  17. 

§  Dr.  Newman  (see  p.  119,  n.)  notices  '  how  desirous  he  is  of  the 
approbation  of  his  brethren — how  alive  to  slights,  though  at  the 


TENDERNESS    AND    SYMPATHY.  I03 

should  not  be  the  servant  of  Christ/*  Does  it  not 
seem  likely  from  this  that  in  his  unconverted  days 
he  may  have  been  a  vain  man,  very  desirous  of 
human  approbation  ?  f  But  chief  stress  must  be 
laid  on  a  consistent  mode  of  pleading  in  self-de- 
fence^ alike  in  writing  to  the  Thessalonians,  and 
writing  to  the  Corinthians  and  speaking  to  the 
elders  of  Ephesus.§  To  the  first  he  says:  'You 
know  how  I  lived  among  you — that  there  was  no 
deceit — that  my  words  were  not  a  cloke  for  cove- 
tousness — that  I  laboured  night  and  day — and 
how  justly  and  unblameably  I  behaved  myself 
among  you/||  To  the  second  more  vehemently : 
1 1  have  wronged  no  man.     Did  I  make  a  gain  of 

same  time  most  forgiving — how  sensitive  of  ingratitude,  though  as 
meek  and  gentle  as  he  is  sensitive.' — Pp.  132,  133. 

*  Gal.  i.  10. 

f  There  is  a  great  difference  between  the  tone  of  Gal.  i.  10,  and 
1  Cor.  x.  33. 

%  A  deeper  and  more  serious  motive,  which  lay  at  the  basis  of 
this,  viz.,  a  sense  that  the  credit  of  the  Gospel  was  bound  up  in  his 
character  for  honesty,  will  be  treated  of  in  the  next  Lecture. 

§  See  below,  p.  106,  »m. 

II   1  Thess.  ii.  5-10. 


104  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

you  through  any  of  them  whom  I  sent  to  you  ?  '* 
And  to  the  third,  in  a  gentler  tone,  but  still  with 
deep  and  earnest  feeling :  '  I  desired  no  man's 
silver  or  gold  or  raiment :  ye  yourselves  know  that 
these  hands  ministered  to  my  necessities/f  On 
considering  all  these  things  together,  we  get  a 
clear  mark  of  individual  character.  Comparing 
these  proofs  of  sensitiveness  to  suspicion  with  the 
indications  of  a  wounded  spirit  mentioned  above, 
we  come  to  the  conclusion  that  no  man  ever  more 
fully  than  this  Apostle  entered  into  the  meaning 
of  the  Psalmist's  words- — '  Reproach  hath  broken 
my  heart/J 

We  might  sum  up  much  of  what  has  preceded, 
with  other  traits  that  come  incidentally  into  view, 
by  saying  (though  it  is  not  a  phrase  which  I  would 
use,  if  I  knew  how  to  find  a  better)  that  there  was 
a  singular  self-consciousness  in  St.  Paul.  We  trace 
in  him  a  peculiarly  close  and  abiding  recollection 
of  personal  sufferings.  These  sufferings  made  an 
intense  impression  upon  him,  and  a  very  perma- 

*  2  Cor.  vii.  2,  xii.  17.      f  Acts  xx.  33,  34.      J  Ps.  lxix.  20. 


TENDERNESS    AND    SYMPATHY.  I05 

nent  one.  Probably  there  is  a  great  difference 
amongst  men  in  this  respect.  Some  easily  forget, 
and  rise  above,  what  they  have  suffered  in  the 
past,  whether  it  was  in  the  form  of  bodily  pain  or 
mental  mortification.  To  others  these  past  trials 
are  for  years  '  thorns  in  the  flesh ' — '  temptations  * 
— and  c  ministers  of  Satan  to  buffet  them/  St. 
Paul  seems  to  have  belonged  to  the  latter  class. 
See,  in  regard  to  afflictions  comparatively  recent, 
how  he  writes  to  the  Thessalonians  of  what  he 
had  '  suffered  before  *  when  he  was  e  shamefully 
treated  at  Philhppi/*  This  was  on  the  Second 
Journey.  So  on  the  Third  Journey,  again  refer- 
ring to  what  was  recent,  he  pointedly  reminds  the 
Galatians  of  the  suffering  state  in  which  he  wras 
when  they  first  became  acquainted  with  him.f 
But  this  habit  of  mind  strikes  us  far  more  forcibly 
when  the  allusion  is  to  afflictions  endured  many 
years  before.     Here  again,  two  instances  may  be 

*  1  Thess,  ii.  2. 

f  Above  (p.  90),  the  fact  of  this  weak  health  was  alluded  to,  as 
a  trial  of  St.  Paul.  Here  the  reference  is  to  his  use  of  that  fact,  as 
an  appeal  for  sympathy. 


106  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

quoted,  and  again  from  two  different  Epistles. 
The  ignominious  circumstances  of  his  escape  from 
Damascus  have  a  very  marked  place  in  the  cata- 
logue of  sufferings  given  in  the  Second  Letter 
to  the  Corinthians  :*  and  in  the  Letter  from  which 
our  text  is  taken,  he  goes  back,  at  the  end  of  his 
life  (associating  Timothy,  too,  most  touchingly  in 
the  recollection),  to  the  afflictions  endured  at 
Lystra,  Iconium,  and  the  Pisidian  Antioch.f  And 
we  should  observe  particularly,  not  simply  his  con- 
tinued feeling  about  these  things,  but  his  tendency 
to  speak  of  them.  In  fact,  St.  Paul,  throughout 
his  Epistles,  is  constantly  speaking  of  himself  and 
what  concerns  himself. J  fYe  know,  from  the 
first  day  that  I  came  into  Asia,  after  what  manner 
I  have  been  with  you  at  all  seasons/ §  is  the  open- 
ing of  his  address  at  Miletus.  And  as  with  his 
speeches  so  with  his  letters..] |       '  I  would  that  ye 

*  2  Cor.  xi.  33.         f  z  Tim.  iii.  11. 

f  A.  Monod  (p.  133,  n.)  notes  his  habit  of  constantly  referring  to 
ivhat  he  teas  before  his  conversion,  as  in  Acts  xxii.,  xxvi.,  and  1 
Tim.  1. 

§  Acts  xx.  18. 

||  Thus  in  identity  of  personal  character,  as  well  as  in  resemblance 


TENDERNESS    AND    SYMPATHY.  I07 

should  know,  brethern,  that  what  has  happened 
to  me  has  turned  rather  to  the  furtherance  of  the 
Gospel  :'*  this  to  a  church  very  dear  and  familiar 
to  him.  '  All  that  relates  to  me  Tychicus  shall 
make  known  to  you :  'f  this  to  a  church  he  had 
never  seen.  And  the  abrupt  and  incidental 
allusions  to  himself  are  still  more  remarkable. 
Does  he  mention  the  Gospel?  he  adds,  f whereof 
i"  Paul  am  made  a  minister/  J  Does  he  urge  men 
to  avoid  contention?  he  adds,  'even  as  7  en- 
deavour to  please  all  men/§  And  here  we  are 
particularly  called  to  notice  his  frequent  habit  of 
bringing  forward  his  own  example.  No  doubt 
the  burden  of  all  these  passages  is,  i  Follow  me  as  I 
follow  Christ:' ||  and  that  criticism  which  should 
attribute  such  expressions  to  a  wish  for  self-exalta- 
tion, would  be  as  strange  as  if  we  were  to  declare 
that  St.  Paul  was  the    apostle  of   self-righteous- 

of  style,  we  see  the  unity  of  the  speaker  in  the  Acts  and  the  writer 
of  the  Epistles. 

*  Phil.  i.  12.         f  Col.  iv.  7.         %  Ib-i-  23,  25. 

§  1  Cor.  x.  33.       ||  1  Cor.  xi.  1. 


108  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

ness.*  But  still  it  is  a  fact,  that  in  all  his  Epistles 
— as  well  as  in  that  single  speech  in  the  Acts, 
which  alone  is  addressed  to  fellow- Christiansf — 
one  marked  feature  of  the  Apostle  Paul  is  con- 
sciousness of  self. 

Now  here,  in  this  delicate  health,  this  sense  of 
deficient  natural  powers,  this  tendency  to  depres- 
sion, this  craving  for  personal  sympathy,  this 
sensitiveness  to  the  good  opinion  of  others,  this 
general  consciousness  of  self,  we  have  evidently 
the  basis  either  for  a  very  selfish,  morbid  and 
exacting  character,  or  for  a  very  loving  and  per- 

*  In  referring  to  his  own  life,  he  was  referring  not  only  to  that 
which  was  a  conscious  martyrdom,  but  also  to  that  which  was  con- 
sciously under  the  operation  of  Divine  grace,  even  as  he  was  con- 
sciously the  bearer  of  a  supernatural  message.  Thus  references  of 
this  kind  are  rather  a  proof  of  humility.  See  how,  in  Acts  xx.  to, 
he  adds,  'with  all  lowliness  of  mind ,'  after  he  has  been  bringing 
forward  his  own  example.  '  Si  l'Apotre  paratt  parfois  se  vanter  lui- 
meme,  on  reconnait  bientot  que  c'est  1'effet  d'une  humilite  auda- 
cieuse  qui  ne  craint  pas  les  faux  jugements,  et  qu'il  est  arrive  a 
un  tel  depouillement  de  lui-meme  qu'il  peut  se  donner  comme 
modele  sans  se  glorifier.' — De  Pressense,  p.  237. 

f  This  consideration  is  of  importance.  No  other  speech  in  the 
Acts  admits  of  the  same  full  comparison  with  the  Epistles. 


TENDERNESS    AND    SYMPATHY.  IO9 

suasive,  winning  and  influential  character.  There 
would  be  no  harm  in  saying  that  but  for  his 
Christianity  St.  Paul  would  have  been  the  former 
— though  I  think  there  were  other  and  sterner 
features  of  the  man,  which  would,  even  naturally, 
have  been  corrective  of  such  a  tendency,  and  pre- 
vented that  result.*  Now,  however,  we  come  to 
consider  what  he  was  with  Christian  faith  and 
principle  in  combination  with  such  physical, 
mental,  and  moral  conditions.  And  it  is  pecu- 
liarly instructive  to  have  approached  the  subject  in 
this  way — for  all  this  weakness  brings  him  very 
near  to  us,f  draws  us  very  close  to  him,  and  so, 
by  God's  blessing,  may  bring  us  into  living  contact 
with  the  truths  by  which  he  was  sustained,  and 
'  out  of  weakness  made  strong/  J 

First  we  may  notice  this  sympathy  of  the 
Apostle  Paul — whether  it  be  natural  sympathy,  or 
Christian  sympathy,  or  both  combined — and  we 
need  not  be  careful  to  determine  the  proportions — 

*  See  Lectures  III.  and  V. 
f  Gal.  iv.  iz.         X  Heb.  xi.  34. 


IIO         THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 


taking  the  lighter  form  of  courtesy.  The  courtesy 
of  St.  Paul  is  so  remarkable,,*  that  it  might  well 
have  been  made  the  subject  of  a  separate  and 
specific  discourse :  and  for  such  separate  handling 
the  materials  would  be  ample,  both  in  the  Acts 
and  in  the  Epistles.  There  is  some  advantage, 
however,  in  treating  it  here  as  a  composite  result 
of  the  two  characteristics  which  have  hitherto 
been  before  our  notice.  For  what  indeed  is 
courtesy  ?  How  ought  we  to  define  it  ?  Could 
we  define  it  better  than  by  saying  that  it  is  a  com- 
bination of  tact  and  sympathy.  As  to  the  principle  of 
true  courtesy,  we  find  it  stated  in  the  thirteenth 

*  Prof.  Jowett  ('  Rom.'  i.  p.  300)  quotes  the  saying,  that  St.  Paul 
was  '  the  finest  gentleman  that  ever  lived,'  and  Prof.  Stanley  ('  Cor.' 
p.  391)  adds  that  he  is  the  first  example  in  detail  of  what  we  mean 
by  « a  gentleman.'  Dr.  Newman,  in  the  '  Sermons '  quoted  below, 
expresses  the  matter  thus  (p.  133):  'There"  is  not  any  one  of  those 
refinements  and  delicacies  of  feeling,  which  are  the  result  of  ad- 
vanced civilisation,  not  any  one  of  those  proprieties  and  embellish- 
ments of  conduct  in  which  the  cultivated  intellect  delights,  but  he 
is  a  pattern  of  it,  in  the  midst  of  that  assemblage  of  other  super- 
natural excellences  which  is  the  common  endowment  of  Apostles 
and  Saints.' 


TENDERNESS    AND    SYMPATHY.  Ill 

chapter  of  the  First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  while 
the  practice  of  it  is  conspicuous  throughout  the 
Apostle's  life.  I  have  alluded  elsewhere  to  the 
conciliatory  language  with  which  that  very  Epistle 
opens.*  Let  me  ask  attention  to  the  turn  given 
to  one  phrase  at  the  end  of  it — '  I  am  glad  of  the 
coming  of  Stephanas,  Fortunatus,  and  Achaicus, 
for  they  refreshed  my  spirit  and  yours.'f  He 
takes  it  for  granted  that  the  Corinthians  will 
sympathise  with  him.  Nothing  is  more  truly 
courteous  than  to  assume  the  presence  of  right 
feeling  in  the  minds  of  those  whom  we  address. 
With  this  compare  that  exquisite  message  at  the 
end  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  : — (  Salute  Rufus 
chosen  in  the  Lord,  and  his  mother  and  mine.}\ 
If  I  were  to  select  two  other  illustrations,  I  should 

*  Lecture  I.  p.  57. 

f  1  Cor.  xvi.  17.  It  is  surprising  how  much  is  expressed  some- 
times in  St.  Paul's  writings  by  the  use  of  pronouns.  '  If  the  truth 
of  God  hath  more  abounded  through  my  lie '  (Rom.  iii.  7)  ;  '  Lest 
Satan  should  get  an  advantage  of  us'  (2  Cor.  ii.  11).  These  are 
both  instances  of  the  Apostle's  facility  of  putting  himself  in  the 
place  of  those  with  whom  he  is  arguing. 

J  Rom.  xvi.  13. 


112  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

take  one  from  the  Epistles  and  the  other  from  the 
Acts.  The  first  would  be  from  the  letter  to  Phile- 
mon ;  but  if  I  were  to  quote  that  letter  at  all,  I 
should  be  obliged  to  quote  the  whole  of  it.  Let 
me  turn  to  that  well-known  answer  to  Agrippa, 
when  Paul  stood  at  Csesarea  before  him  and  Bere- 
nice and  Festus.  I  confess  I  cannot  think — 
either  when  I  look  at  the  Greek  words,  or  consider 
the  circumstances  of  the  moment — that  Agrippa, 
in  that  exclamation,  expressed  any  serious  convic- 
tion, or  meant  to  say  that  he  was  '  almost  per- 
suaded/* I  believe  that  it  was  a  contemptuous  sneer, 
and  that  he  wished  all  that  dignified  company  to 
understand  that  he  was  not  to  be  expected  to  join 
the  sect  of  the  'Christians'  on  such  short  notice 
and  such  trivial  grounds. t  No  doubt  it  is  with 
some  regret  that  this  view  is  taken,  when  we  con- 
sider the  manv  excellent  sermons  which  have  been 


*  Acts  xxvi.  29. 

f  Nearly  all  the  most  thoughtful  and  accurate  of  recent  critics 
take  this  view  of  the  drift  of  Agrippa's  words. 


TENDERNESS    AND    SYMPATHY.  IT3 

preached  on  this  verse.  But  do  we  not  gain  as 
much  as  we  lose  ?  For  this  interpretation  en- 
hances tenfold  the  noble  courtesy  with  which  St. 
Paul  replied — '  Be  the  reasons  small  or  be  they 
great,  be  the  time  of  persuasion  long  or  be  it 
short,  I  would  to  God  that  not  only  thou,  but 
also  all  that  hear  me  this  day,  were  even  such  as  I 
am,  except  these  bonds.' 

It  is  in  little  things  that  habitual  character  is 
often  most  easily  seen  :  and  after  this  brief  general 
notice  of  the  courtesy  of  St.  Paul,  I  would  next 
point  out  his  great  consideration  for  the  comfort  of 
others.  See  him  on  board  the  ship,  when  the 
morning  is  breaking  on  the  coast  of  Malta.  He 
says  to  that  crowd  of  weary  and  terrified  people, 
which  fills  the  deck,  ( I  beseech  you  now  to  take 
some  food  :  this  is  for  your  health  and  safety : 
seeing  that  for  fourteen  days  ye  have  had  no 
regular  meal.''*  And  this  for  a  number  of  persons 
with  whom  he  had  nothing  in  common,  except 
that   they  had    been    in    discomfort    and    danger 

*  Acts  xxvii.  33,  34.     See  Lecture  I.  p.  1 1. 


TI4  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

together.  When  he  travelled  with  familiar  com- 
panions, there  must  have  been  many  occasions 
(as  there  always  are  on  such  journeys)  for  exhibit- 
ing either  a  selfish  or  an  unselfish  character.  We 
are  not  without  record  of  the  Apostle's  thought- 
fulness  and  care  for  his  intimate  friends.  '  Tro- 
phimus  have  I  left  at  Miletus  sick/*  Some  difficul- 
ties have  been  raised  here  as  to  questions  of  time 
and  place.  But  to  set  against  these  (which  I 
think  are  very  trivial),  and  to  mark  the  authorship 
of  the  Epistle,  we  have  surely  here  a  most  cha- 
racteristic mark  of  the  man.f  Paul  knew  what 
it  was  to  be  detained  by  sickness  on  a  journey  : 
and  he  could  feel  for  his  friends  in  like  circum- 

*  z  Tim.  iv.  20. 

f  The  mere  existence  of  this  passage,  occurring  as  it  does  so  natu- 
rally and  spontaneously,  seems  to  me  enough  to  establish  the  authen- 
ticity of  the  epistle.  As  to  the  difficulties  of  time  and  place,  they 
would  be  very  considerable  if  we  were  to  reject  the  second  Roman 
imprisonment.  Trophimus  certainly  could  not  have  been  left  at 
Miletus  on  the  occasion  described  in  Acts  xx.,  for  he  was  afterwards 
with  St.  Paul  at  Jerusalem  (see  xxi.  29) ;  nor  could  he  have 
reached  Miletus  on  the  voyage  to  Rome  (xxvii.  7),  for  the  north- 
westerly winds  would  have  made  it  impossible  to  sail  northwards 
from  Cnidus. — See  '  Life  and  Epistles,'  ii.  p.  390. 


TENDERNESS    AND    SYMPATHY.  II5 


stances.*  The  same  sympathy  is  displayed  more 
fully  in  the  case  of  Epaphroditus,  whose  society 
in  Rome  was  by  no  means  indifferent  to  him,  but 
whom  he  sends  to  the  Philippians,  because  Epa- 
phroditus  himself  longed  to  see  them,  and  was 
depressed,  inasmuch  as  they  had  heard  he  had 
been  sick.  'Yea,  and  he  was  sick  nigh  unto 
death :  but  God  had  mercy  on  him,  and  not  on 
him  only,  but  on  me  also,  lest  I  should  have  grief 
upon  grief.  Now  therefore  I  send  him  the  more 
cheerfully,  that^when  ye  see  him  ye  may  rejoice, 
and  that  my  grief  may  be  the  less/f  And  to 
turn  again  to  the  Pastoral  Epistles :   what  are  we 

*  Again  I  am  tempted  to  give  an  illustration  from  St.  Bernard. 
He  and  his  friend  William  of  St.  Thierry  were  ill  at  the  same  time, 
and  both  felt  the  benefit  of  common  experience  of  suffering.  '  Deus 
bone,  quid  mihi  boni  contulit  ilia  infirmitas,  feriae  illae,  vacatio  ilia  1 
et  cooperabatur  necessitati  meae  toto  illo  tempore  infirmitatis  meae 
apud  eum  infirmitas  ejus,  qua  et  ipse  tunc  temporis  detinebatur. 
Infirmi  ergo  ambo  tota  die  de  spirituali  physica  animae  confere- 
bamus,  de  medicamentis  virtutum  contra  languores  vitiorum.' — 
ii.  1085. 

t  Phil.  ii.  27,  28.  Niemeyer  brings  forward  this  incident,  as 
an  illustration  of  St.  Paul's  anxious  care  to  avoid  causing  trouble 
or  inconvenience  to  those  whom  he  loved. 

I   2 


11(5  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 


to  say  of  that  homely  advice  concerning  health, 
suddenly  interposed  in  the  midst  of  very  solemn 
injunctions?  '  Drink  no  longer  water;  but  use 
a  little  wine  for  thy  stomach's  sake,  and  thine 
often  infirmities/*  Commentators  have  laboured 
to  trace  the  connection  with  the  context :  and  per- 
haps there  is  some  contextual  connection.  But  I 
think  that  with  an  affectionate  heart,  and  the 
thought  of  a  friend  in  delicate  health  amidst  re- 
sponsible duties,  spontaneous  suggestion  is  all  that 
is  needed  for  such  a  word  of  advice.  Love  is  very 
watchful  in  its  attention  to  detail.  And  what  a 
pitiful  criticism  that  is  which  pronounces  this 
verse  below  the  dignity  of  an  inspired  Apostle  !f 
What  a  forgetfulness  it  implies  of  what  life  really 
is  !     Has  not  our  very  religion  its  ordinary  sphere 

*  i  Tim.  v.  23.  Here  (as  above  on  2  Tim.  iv,  20),  I  hardly 
tlink  it  would  be  fanatical  to  argue  the  authenticity  of  the  epistle 
from  this  characteristic  passage. 

f  '  Le  christianisme  de  saint  Paul  est  un  christianisme  essentielle- 
ment  humain.  L'Evangile  a  tout  renouvele  dans  le  cceur  de 
l'Apotre ;  mais  il  n'a  transforme  en  lui  ni  le  caractere  general  de 
l'espece,  ni  le  temperament  particulier  de  l'individu.  .  .  .  On  le  voit 
l'appliquer  tour-a-tour  aux  plus  petites  choses  et  aux  plus  grandes, 


TENDERNESS    AND    SYMPATHY.  3  lj 


in  common-place  details  ?  This  considerate 
thoughtful ness  is  a  characteristic  not  simply  of 
Paul,  but  of  Christianity.  Here  we  can  quote 
another  Apostle.  St.  John  writes  thus  to  Gaius 
— '  Beloved,  above  all  things  I  pray  that  thou 
mayest  prosper  and  be  in  health,  even  as  thy 
soul  prospers  '* — here  writing  in  the  spirit  of  the 
Lord  Whom  he  loved,  and  Who,  when  He  re- 
stored that  young  child  to  life,  '  took  her  by  the 
hand/  as  we  read  in  St.  Luke,t  and  charged  them 
that  they  should  '  give  her  some  meat.'' 

A  thought  occurs  here,  on  which  we  may  pause 
for  a  moment — viz.  how  a  Religion  with  this  cha- 
racteristic fits  our  world  of  suffering.  In  the  next 
discourse  I  shall  have  occasion   to   notice   how  a 

et  toujours  avec  la  raeme  aisance  de  simplicite.  Soit  qu'il  aspire  a. 
etre  anatheme,  comme  Jesus-Christ,  pour  ses  freres  (Rom.  ix.  3) 
.  .  .  soit  qu'il  s'occupe  de  ses  livres  dont  il  ne  peut  se  passer  plus 
longtemps,  de  son  unique  manteau  que  la  saison  rigoureuse  va  lui 
re-ndre  necessaire — c'est  toujours  l'Esprit  de  Jesus-Christ  qui  l'anime. 
mais  cet  Esprit  tell  "merit  passe  dans  tout  son  etre,  qu'il  y  a  pris 
i'empire  facile  et  naturel  qui  semble  n'appartenir  qu'a  1' esprit  pro- 
pre.' — A.  Monod,  pp  77,  78. 

*  3  John  2.  f  Luke  viii.  55. 


Il8  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

tender  regard  for  the  consciences  of  others  suits  a 
world  of  sin :  here  I  am  remarking  how  a  tender 
regard  for  the  sufferings  of  others  suits  a  world  of 
sorrow.  A  large  part  of  the  comfort  of  life  de- 
pends on  small  acts  of  attention,  having  reference 
not  only  to  the  soul  but  to  the  body.  Some 
austere  and  reserved  men  may  seem  independent  of 
such  things :  but  that  outward  severity  frequently 
conceals  an  inward  craving  for  sympathy,  and  a 
longing  even  to  express  sympathy.  Self-indulgent 
men,  on  the  other  hand,  often  find  that  they  have 
lost  their  best  support  through  the  habit  of  forget- 
ting others.  We  read  that  on  one  occasion  St. 
Paul  encountered  certain  philosophers  of  the  Epi- 
cureans and  Stoics.*  So  has  it  been  ever  since. 
Christianity  in  Paul's  teaching  and  example  still 
meets  and  resists  those  two  opposing  schools. 
The  Christian  is  no  Stoic.  Knowing  that  his 
own  pain  is  a  reality,  and  feeling  it  keenly,  he 
feels  for  the  pain  of  others.  Still  less  is  he  an 
Epicurean,  who  is  more  selfish  and  more   heartless 

*  Acts  xvii.  1 8. 


TENDERNESS    AND    SYMPATHY.  II9 

than  the  former,  and  who  inverts  the  Christian  pre- 
cept, looking  always  on  '  his  own  things/  not 
'  the  things  of  others/* 

But  we  should  not  do  justice  to  this  part  of  St. 
Paul's  character  without  going  farther,  and  without 
marking  also  his  regard  to  the  feelings  and  preju- 
dices of  others.*  This  subject  must  be  resumed 
in   its  graver  form    of   religious  toleration,  when 

*  Phil.  ii.  4. 

t  A  note  ought  to  be  added  on  that  large  general  sympathy  with 
all  humanity — that  tyiXavdpwivia,  so  to  speak — for  which  the  Apostle 
was  so  remarkable.  Two  writers  may  be  adduced  here  with  advant- 
age, both  of  whom  quote  Terence's  familiar  line  as  applicable,  in  a 
pre-eminent  degree,  to  St.  Paul.  Dr.  Newman,  in  his  '  Sermons  on 
Various  Occasions'  (1857),  gives  (in  the  midst  of  some  things  which 
appear  very  strange  to  an  English  eye)  a  rich  and  varied  picture  of 
what  he  truly  calls  the  Apostle's  'characteristic  gift'  of  sympathy 
with  human  nature.  He  was  one  of  those  saints  '  who  are  versed  in 
human  knowledge,  who  are  busy  in  human  society,  who  understind 
the  human  heart,  who  can  throw  themselves  into  the  minds  of  other 
men  ;  and  all  this  in  consequence  of  natural  gifts  and  secular  educa- 
tion. While  they  themselves  stand  secure  in  the  blessedness  of 
purity  and  peace,  they  can  follow  in  imagination  the  ten  thousand 
aberrations  of  pride,  passion  and  remorse.  They  have  the  thoughts, 
feelings,  frames  of  mind,  attractions,  sympathies,  antipathies  of 
other  men,  so  far  as  these  are  not  sinful ;  only  they  have  these 
properaes  of  human    nature  purified,  sanctified   and  exalted.' — P. 


120     THE  CHARACTER  OF  ST  PAUL. 

we  are  considering,  on  another  occasion,  what  is 
within  the  domain  of  Conscience.  Here  we  may 
just  glance  at  its  more  superficial  aspect.  The 
habit  of  mind  which  I  am  here  indicating  exhibits 

1 06.  '  In  St.  Paul  the  fulness  of  divine  gifts  does  not  tend  to  destroy 
what  is  human  in  him,  but  to  spiritualise  and  perfect  it.  The 
common  nature  of  the  whole  race  of  Adam  spoke  in  him,  acted  in 
him,  with  an  energetical  presence,  with  a  sort  of  bodily  fulness, 
always  under  the  sovereign  command  of  divine  grace,  but  losing 
none  of  its  real  freedom  and  power  because  of  its  subordination. 
And  the  consequence  is  that,  having  the  nature  of  man  so  strong 
within  him,  he  is  able  to  enter  into  human  nature,  and  to  sym- 
pathise with  it,  with  a  gift  peculiarly  his  own.' — Pp.  108,  109. 
'  He  felt  all  his  neighbours  to  be  existing  in  himself.  He  was  con- 
scious of  possessing  a  nature  capable  of  running  into  all  the  multi- 
plicity of  emctions,  of  devices,  of  purposes  and  of  sins,  into  which 
it  had  actually  run  in  the  wide  world  and  in  the  multitude  of  men.' 
— P.  no.  Thus  the  writer  accounts  for  St.  Paul's  liking  for  the 
heathen  poets.  '  He  loved  poor  human  nature  with  a  passionate 
love,  and  the  literature  of  the  Greeks  was  only  its  expression ;  and 
he  hung  over  it  tenderly  and  mournfully,  wishing  for  its  regenera- 
tion and  salvation.' — P.  nz.  '  St.  Paul's  characteristic  gift  was  a 
special  apprehension  of  human  nature  as  a  fact,  and  an  intimate 
familiarity  with  it  as  an  object  of  continual  contemplation  and 
affection.  Though  he  had  never  been  a  Heathen,  though  he  was 
no  longer  a  Jew,  yet  he  wTas  a  Heathen  in  capability,  and  a  Jew  in 
the  history  of  the  past.'— P.  1 17.  'As  he  loved  that  common 
nature,  so  he  took  pleasure  in  viewing  all  who  partake  of  it,  scat- 
tered though  they  were  all  over  the  earth.      He  sympathised  with 


TENDERNESS    AND    SYMPATHY.  121 

itself  in  many  varied  ways.  We  might  group 
them,  perhaps,  under  the  two  heads  of  generosity 
and  for hearance. 

them  all,  wherever  and  whatever  they  were ;  and  he  felt  it  to  be 
one  special  mercy,  conveyed  to  them  in  the  Gospel,  that  the  unity 
of  human  nature  was  henceforth  recognised  and  restored  in  Jesus 
Christ.' — P.  134.  Dean  Stanley,  in  his  '  Sermons  and  Essays  on 
the  Apostolical  Age,'  has  happily  expressed  the  same  characteristic 
of  the  Apostle  in  another  aspect :  '  Whatever  had  been  in  former 
ages  that  remarkable  union  of  qualities  which  had  from  the  earliest 
times  constituted  the  chosen  people  into  a  link  between  the  East 
and  West,  that  was  now  in  the  highest  degree  exemplified  in  the 
character  of  Paul  .  .  .  Never  before  nor  since  have  the  Jew  and 
Gentile  so  completely  met  in  one  single  person  .  .  .  What  is  that 
probing  of  the  innermost  recesses  of  the  human  heart  and  conscience 
— so  unlike  the  theocratic  visions  of  the  older  prophets — but  the 
apostolical  reflection  of  the  practical,  individual,  psychological  spirit 
of  the  western  philosophies  ?  .  .  .  That  capacity  for  throwing  him- 
self into  the  position  and  feelings  of  others — that  intense  sympathy 
in  the  strength  of  which,  as  has  been  truly  said,  he  had  a  thousand 
friends,  and  loved  each  as  his  own  soul,  and  seemed  to  live  a  thousand 
lives  in  them,  and  died  a  thousand  deaths  when  he  must  quit  them 
— what  was  all  this  but  the  effect  of  God's  blessing  on  that  bound- 
less versatility  of  nature  which  had  formed  the  especial  mark  of  the 
Grecian  mind  for  good  and  evil  in  all  ages?' — Pp.  167-169.  And 
the  important  reflections  which  follow  in  a  later  part  of  the  same 
discourse  must  not  be  overlooked.  '  The  conviction  of  the  truth  of 
Christianity  rests  far  more  than  may  at  first  sight  appear  on  the  con- 
viction of  its  universality  j  and  if  it  could  be  proved  that  large  pro- 


122  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 


Notwithstanding  all  the  plots  and  misrepre- 
sentations of  his  enemies,  PauPs  disposition  is 
ever  that  of  confiding  trust.  He  does  not  indulge 
the  habit  of  suspicion.  Party-spirit  is  rife  at 
Corinth,  and  the  name  of  Apollos  is  one  of  the 
watchwords :  yet  he  urges  Apollos  to  go  there, 
does  not  fear  that  Apollos  will  be  disloyal,  or  that 
the  spirit  of  faction  will  be  increased  by  his  pre- 
sence.* Soon  afterwards,  in  writing  the  Second 
Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  he  tells  them  all  his 
feelings,  and  assumes  that  they  will  be  interested 
in  the  recital. f  He  readily  forgives  what  was  un- 
fair to  himself.  He  forgives  and  forgets.  He 
says  to  the  Galatians :  (  Ye  have  not  injured  me 
at  all/  J  though  this  was  a  time  when  he  was  full  of 

vinces  of  human  thought,  important  elements  of  human  advance- 
ment, were  altogether  foreign,  if  not  hostile  to  its  teaching,  then,  far 
more  than  by  any  direct  attack  on  its  outward  evidences,  would  its  hold 
be  loosened  over  the  minds  of  men  ;  it  might  be  held  to  have  been 
a  religion,  it  could  hardly  be  practically  held  to  be  the  religion  of  the 
world.  Thanks  be  to  God,  the  Scriptures  teem  with  a  thousand 
proofs  that  no  such  alternative  is  offered  to  us,  and  none  perhaps  is 
more  convincing  than  the  lesson  forced  upon  us  by  the  work  and 
character  of  St.  Paul.' — Pp.  179,  180. 

*   1  Cor.  xvi.  12.         f  2  Cor.  i.  8.         %  Gal.  iv.  12. 


TENDERNESS    AND     SYMPATHY.  12$ 

anxiety  lest,  through  the  mischief  of  the  Judaizers, 
his  labour  had  been  in  vain. 

To  turn  now  to  his  forbearance  :*  he  is  sensi- 
tively afraid  of  causing  pain.  He  calls  God  to 
record,  that  it  was  e  to  spare '  his  erring  converts 
that  he  had  not  visited  them  when  he  intended. f 
Though  infinitely  above  the  little  superstitions 
which  make  religion  to  consist  in  minor  obser- 
vances, he  never  boasts  of  his  superiority,  never 
treats  scruples  with  derision.  Irony  indeed  he 
has  :  but  this  he  reserves  as  a  lash  for  those  who 
were  proud  of  their  breadth  of  view  and  were 
contemptuous  towards  others.  J     Perhaps  the  most 

*  No  greater  instance  of  forbearance  can  be  adduced  than  what 
he  says  to  Philemon  (w.  8,  9),  'I  might  have  such  confidence  in 
Christ  as  to  command,  but  for  love's  sake  I  rather  beseech.''  These 
words,  as  Dr.  Newman  says,  might  be  taken  as  a  motto  to  his  whole 
ministry :  '  Letting  influence  take  the  place  of  rule,  and  charity 
stand  instead  of  authority,  he  held  souls  captive  by  the  regenerate 
affections  of  human  nature^ — P.  137. 

f  2  Cor.  i.  23. 

+  1  Cor.  iv.  8, 10.  A  question  arises  (to  be  reverently  handled,  yet 
not  necessarily  to  be  repelled)  as  to  whether  we  can  detect  in  St.  Paul 
anything  like  what  we  call  humour.     Our  impression  would  be,  that 


124  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

remarkable  of  all  the  instances,  which  it  is  natural 
to  mention  here  under  this  general  head,  is  the 
passage  in  which  he  speaks  of  those  at  Rome  who 
(  preached  Christ  of  contention'  and  '  sought  to 
add  affliction  to  his  bonds/  '  Notwithstanding/ 
he  says,  c  everyway,  Christ  is  preached 3 :  and  he 
therein  '  rejoices,  yea,  and  will  rejoice/*  It  might 
indeed  well  be  that  differences  among  Christians 
would  vanish  into  insignificance,  in  presence  of  the 
hideous  Paganism  of  Rome.  But  how  rare  is 
such  generous  forbearance,  even  among  good  men 
and  in  the  highest  of  all  causes  ! 

A  still  more  definite  feature,  perhaps,  is  before 
us  when  we  consider  St.  Paul's  tenderness  and 
sympathy  in  their  concentrated  form,  and  think 
of  his  friendships.  Here  is  the  Christian  result 
corresponding  to  that  natural  desire  for  sympathy 
which  we  noticed  before.  Friendship  was  to  St. 
Paul  of  as  much  consequence  as  to  any  man  that 

everything  in  him  was  pitched  too  high  for  the  ordinary  play  of  light 
and  shade  in  human  converse.     Chrysostom  notes  that,  while  it  is 
strongly  said  that  the  Apostle  wepc,  it  is  never  said  that  he  laughed. 
*  Phil.  i.  1 6,  18. 


TENDERNESS    AND    SYMPATHY.  1 25 


ever  lived.  He  needed  the  help  of  friends  even  in 
his  divinely-conducted  work.  Their  presence  was 
his  joy.  His  feelings  towards  them  were  intense. 
But  the  very  prominence  of  this  part  of  St.  Paul's 
character  makes  it  needless  to  enlarge  on  it.*  I 
will  just  refer  to  one  point  of  detail,  which  might 
possibly  pass  unobserved,  namely,  his  gratitude  to 

*  *  He  who  had  the  constant  contemplation  of  his  Lord  and 
Saviour  was  nevertheless  as  susceptible  of  the  affections  of  human 
nature  and  the  influences  of  the  external  world,  as  if  he  were  a 
stranger  to  that  contemplation.  He  who  had  rest  and  peace  in  the 
love  of  Christ,  was  not  satisfied  without  the  love  of  man.  He 
whose  supreme  reward  was  the  approbation  of  God,  looked  out  for 
the  approval  of  his  brethren  ...  He  loved  them  not  only  'for 
Jesus'  sake,*  to  use  his  own  expression,  but  for  their  own  sake  also. 
He  lived  in  them ;  he  felt  with  them  and  for  them ;  he  was  anxious 
about  them ;  he  gave  them  help,  and  in  turn  he  looked  for  comfort 
from  them.  His  mind  was  like  some  instrument  of  music,  harp 
or  viol,  the  strings  of  which  vibrate,  though  untouched,  with  the 
notes  which  other  instruments  give  forth  .  .  .  Even  when  he  was 
about  to  be  martyred,  still,  as  before,  he  had  time  to  think  of  his 
friends,  of  those  who  were  near  him,  those  who  were  away,  and 
those  who  had  deserted  him  ...  He  who  is  the  special  preacher  of 
Divine  Grace,  is  also  the  special  friend  and  intimate  of  Human 
Nature.  He  who  reveals  to  us  the  mysteries  of  God's  Sovereign 
Decrees,  manifests  at  the  same  time  the  tenderest  interest  in  the 
souls  of  Individuals.' — Newman's  'Sermons',  pp.  130,  133. 


126  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

his  friends,  and  his  distinct  remembrance  of  all 
who  had  ever  shown  him  kindness.*  Again  to 
adduce  that  Epistle  to  the  Galatians :  though  he 
has  to  rebuke  them  sternly  for  the  present,  he 
cannot  forget  their  affectionate  reception  of  him 
in  the  past.  Thus  also,  in  writing  to  the  Philip- 
pians,  there  come  back  upon  his  grateful  recollec- 
tion ( those  women  who  laboured  with  him  in 
the  Gospel,  with  Clement,  and  other  fellow- 
labourers  ; s  and  he  begs  that  help  may  be  given 
to  them.f  How  richly  the  same  kind  of  fond 
remembrance  overflows  in  the  Second  Epistle  to 
Timothy — fThe  Lord  give  mercy  unto  the  house 
of  Onesiphorus,  for  he  oft  refreshed  me,  and  was 
not  ashamed  of  my  chain :  but  when  he  was  in 
Rome,  he  sought  me  out  very  diligently  and  found 
me.     The  Lord  grant  unto  him  that  he  may  find 

*  Niemeyer  has  a  very  warm  paragraph  on  this  part  of  St.  Paul's 
character.  The  Apostle  well  knew  the  art  'schon  anzunehmen,  die 
vielleicht  noch  grosser  ist  als  die  Kunst  schon  zu  geben.'  And  the 
example  is  all  the  more  precious,  because  what  he  received  bore  no 
proportion  to  what  he  gave, 

f  Phil.  iv.  3. 


TENDERNESS    AND    SYMPATHY.  127 

mercy  of  the  Lord  !  '*  And  again  at  the  very  end 
of  the  letter,  a  salutation  is  expressly  sent  to  c  the 
household  of  Onesiphorus.'f  But  no  passage  is  so 
much  to  our  purpose,  as  that  last  chapter  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans,  in  which  many  individuals 
are  singled  out  for  remembrance,  and  appropriate 
salutations  sent  to  each :  ( I  commend  unto  you 
Phoebe  .  .  .  that  ye  receive  her  and  assist  her : 
for  she  hath  been  a  succourer  of  many,  and  of 
myself  also.  Greet  Aquila  and  Priscilla,  my 
helpers  in  Jesus  Christ,  who  for  my  life  laid  down 
their  own  necks :  unto  whom  not  only  /  give 
thanks,  but  also  all  the  churches  of  the  Gentiles. 
Greet  Mary,  who  bestowed  much  labour  on  us. 
Salute  Urban,  o.\r  helper  in  Christ.  Gaius,  mine 
host,  and  of  the  whole  church,  saluteth  you/ J 

One  more  particular  may  bring  this  summary 
to  a  conclusion.  An  unfailing  mark  of  true 
friendship  is  disinterestedness  ;  and  this  was 
eminently  characteristic  of  St.  Paul.  I  suppose 
we    expect    in     an    Apostle    that     he    will    go 

*  2  Tim.  i.  16-18.     f  lb.  iv.  19.     %  Rorn.  xvi.  1-4  6,  9,  23. 


128  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

through  enormous  trials  for  many  years  without 
anything  in  a  worldly  sense  to  gain  by  it.  Let  us 
then  glance  at  this  matter  too  in  one  of  its  inci- 
dental and  smaller  manifestations.  We  find  St. 
Paul  refusing  support  for  his  labours,  while  yet 
(and  this,  too,  is  part  of  his  consideration  for 
others)  he  asserts  the  principle  which  is  the  suf- 
ficient justification  of  all  ecclesiastical  endow- 
ments :  (  Nevertheless  I  have  not  used  this  power; 
but  I  suffer  all  things,  lest  I  should  hinder  the 
Gospel  of  Christ/*  Here  in  this  sentence,  and 
sentences  like  it,  we  are  at  the  fountain-head  of 
all  this  tenderness  and  sympathy.  A  disinterested 
desire  for  the  salvation  of  others  makes  a  man 
disinterested  in  everything  else.  This  desire  for 
the  highest  good,  whether  of  churches  or  indi- 
viduals, is  the  controlling  principle  which  har- 
monises all  that  we  have  been  considering  to-day. 
If  Paul  longed  to  see  the  disciples  in  Rome,  it 
was  that  he  might  '  impart  to  them  some  spiritual 
gift.'t     If  he  feels  it  painful  to  be  left  in  Athens 

*  i   Cor.  ix.  iz.  t  Rom.  i.  n. 


TENDERNESS    AND    SYMPATHY.  120, 


c  alone/  it  is  because  he  has  sent  Timothy  and 
Silas  to  '  establish '  the  Macedonian  churches,* 
and  '  comfort  them  concerning  their  faith/  lest  by 
some  means  the  tempter  '  should  have  tempted 
them'  and  all  the  Apostolic  labour  should  be  '  in 
vain.'f  If  he  mourns  over  the  departure  of  Demas, 
it  is  because  that  unstable  disciple  •'  has  loved  this 
present  world.' J  If  he  has  no  peace  because  he 
(  meets  not  Titus  his  brother/  it  is  because  that  friend 
is  to  bring  him  news  of  the  polluted  and  tempted 
Corinthian  church. §  If  he  pours  out  his  heart  to 
Philemon,  it  is  that  the  slave  and  the  master  may 
be  reconciled  as  Christian  brethren. ||  If  he 
keenly  feels  the  indignity  of  being  '  an  ambassador 
in  bonds/  he  exults  in  feeling  that  '  the  Word 
of  God  is  not  bound/**     '  My  tribulation  is  your 

*   1  Thess.  iii.  2.  f  lb.  5.  J  2  Tim.  iv.  10. 

§  2  Cor.  vii.  6,  14.     ||   Philem.  [6. 

**  2  Tim.  ii.  9.  I  may  just  quote  here  one  sentence  from  the 
above-mentioned  discourse  of  Ancillon  (p.  71),  which  is  a  curious 
specimen  of  an  old  French  Protestant  visitation-sermon.  •  Je 
prise  beaucoup  les  larmes  de  S.  Pierre,  mais  je  prise  encore  davan- 
tage  les  larmes  de  S.  Paul  dans  notre  texte  (Phil.  iii.  18,  19).  Les 
larmes  de  S.  Pierre  estoient  des  larmes  de  repentance,  les  larmes  de 


I30  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

glory/*  'We  live,  if  ye  stand  fast/f  'Who  is  weak, 
but  that  I  am  in  tender  and  immediate  sympathy 
with  him?  Who  is  betrayed  into  sin,  but  that  I  burn 
with  anger  and  grief  ? '  J  '  Ye  are  in  my  heart  to  live 
and  die  with  you/§  '  1  bear  about  in  my  body 
the  dying  of  the  Lord  Jesus  :  but  if  death  works 
in  me,  life  works  in  you/||  Therefore  I  '  faint  not/ 
'  Jesus  was  crucified  through  weakness,  yet  He 
liveth  by  the  power  of  God  :  we  also  are  weak  in 
Him,  but  we  live  with  Him  by  the  power  of  God 
toward  you/**  '  I  rejoice  in  my  sufferings  for 
you,  and  fill  up  that  which  is  behind  of  the  afflic- 
tions of  Christ  in  my  flesh  for  His  body's  sake, 
which  is  the  Church,  whereof  I  am  made  a 
minister/ft  But  why  should  I  multiply  such 
quotations  ?  It  is  evident  that,  though  we  be- 
gan by  endeavouring  to  look  at  the  purely  human 
side  of  this  character,  we  are  now  looking  at  its 

S.  Paul  estoient  des  larmes  cie  charite ;  les  larmes  de  S.  Pierre 
estoient  les  larmes  d'un  pecheur,  les  larmes  de  S.  Paul  estoient  des 
larmes  d'un  Pasteur.' — P.  20. 

*  Eph.  iii.  13.      f  1  Thess.  iii.  8.      J2C0r.xi.29.      §Ib.iv.io. 
||  lb.  12.     **  lb.  xiii.  4.     ft  Col.  i.  24,  25. 


TENDERNESS    AND    SYMPATHY.  131 

divine  side.  We  have  passed  out  of  the  sphere 
of  natural  sympathy  into  the  sphere  of  that 
higher  sympathy,  which  springs  from  union  with 
Christ.  If  the  natural  heart  is  beating  here,  the 
Christian  heart  is  beating  with  it :  and  we  cannot 
well  distinguish  the  pulsations.  '  Behold  !  we 
stand  here  by  the  well  of  water/*  The  love  of 
Christ  is  that  main  stream,  which  receives  all  the 
other  streams  of  impulse  and  passion,  and  makes 
them  holy  and  safe  and  beneficent — which  uses 
every  mountain  torrent  —  and  may  even  absorb 
and  make  use  of  our  scanty  and  sluggish  affec- 
tions, even  at  this  low  level,  turning  even  them 
into  a  blessing,  through  its  own  copious  flow,  unto 
the  fatness  and  fruitfulness  of  the  land. 

Now  in  concluding  this  attempt  to  illustrate  St. 
Paul's  tenderness  and  sympathy,  I  might  dwell  on 
the  fact  that  all  his  various  Epistles,  and  the  narra- 
tive in  the  Acts,  have  been  used  freely  and  indif- 
ferently :  and  that  the  same  trait  of  character  has 
come  easily  and  naturally  to  view  from  the  use  of 

*  Gen.  xxiv.  13,  43. 

K  3 


I$2  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 


all.  No  digression  seemed  necessary,  in  the  course 
of  the  inquiry,  to  call  attention  to  this  fact.  And 
now  at  the  close  I  simply  and  barely  notice  it, 
with  the  additional  observation  that  this  argument 
reaches  those  Epistles  which  of  late  have  been 
most  closely  questioned.  It  seems  to  me  quite 
evident,  that  the  same  man  who  spoke  to  the 
elders  at  Miletus,  wrote  also  from  Rome  (nearly 
ten  years  afterwards)  that  last  letter  to  Timothy. 

And  to  end  with  what  is  directly  practical. 
Such  a  character  as  this,  which  comes  out  before 
us  in  that  affecting  address  and  in  those  final 
letters,  is  a  very  powerful  character.*     Sorrow  it- 

*  The  truth  of  this  is  well  expressed  at  the  two  poles  of  recent 
Oxford  theology.  '  A  man  who  thus  divests  himself  of  his  own 
greatness  and  puts  himself  on  the  level  of  his  brethren,  and  throws 
himself  upon  the  sympathies  of  human  nature,  and  speaks  with  such 
simplicity  and  spontaneous  outpouring  of  heart,  is  forthwith  in  a 
condition  both  to  conceive  great  love  of  them  and  to  inspire  great 
love  towards  himself.' — Dr.  Newman,  pp.  128,  129.  'To  St.  Paul 
specially  was  it  given  to  pieach  to  the  world,  who  knew  the  world  ; 
he  subdued  the  heart,  who  understood  the  heart.  It  was  his  sym- 
pathy that  was  his  means  of  influence  ;  it  was  his  affectionateness 
which  was  his  title  and  instrument  of  empire.' — P.  118.  'Great 
men  are  sometimes  said  to  possess  the  power  of  command,  but  not 


TENDERNESS    AND    SYMPATHY.  I33 


self  is  winning  and  persuasive.*  The  mere  sight 
of  suffering  is  an  attraction  which  few  are  able  to 
resist :  and  when  that  suffering  is  combined  with 
strong  convictions,  and  when  those  convictions 
have  their  root  in  a  sensitive  and  generous  heart, 
then  there  is  an  influence  of  commanding  power. 
Sorrow,  too,  and  suffering  are  themselves  a  foun- 
tain of  sympathy.  And  sympathy  helps  others  in 
sorrow,  and  often  obtains  for  truth  an  access  which 
would  otherwise  be  closed.  Sympathy  wins  con- 
fidence and  secures  co-operation — enables  you  to 
gather  round  you  the  willing  labour  of  others 
— uses    their     services    without    forfeiting    their 

the  power  of  entering  into  the  feelings  of  others.  Such  was  not 
the  greatness  of  the  Apostle  St.  Paul.  His  strength  was  his  weak- 
ness, and  his  weakness  his  strength.  His  dependence  on  others  was 
in  part  also  the  source  of  his  influence  over  them.' — Prof.  Jowett,  i. 
pp.  302,  303. 

*  '  On  prete  une  oreille  attentive  a  un  avocat  qui  a  souffert  pour 
la  cause  qu'il  de'fend.'  But,  independently  of  this,  '  la  douleur  a 
ses  droits  sur  le  cceur  de  l'homme  ;  elle  exerce  un  empire,  elle 
obtient  un  respect  qui  lui  est  propre.  L'Apotre  lui-meme,  avec 
cette  connaissance  du  cceur  humain  qui  respire  dans  tout  ce  qu'il 
dit,  fait  appel  a  ce  sentiment  (Gal.  vi.  17)  en  ecrivant  aux  Galates.' 
— A.  Monod,  p.  54.     See  also,  pp.  140,  146. 


134  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

love.*  Paul,  like  David — like  a  Greater  than  David 
— had  the  power  of  assimilating  and  controlling  the 
characters  of  those  around  him.  Paul's  religion 
was  the  religion  of  the  Beatitudes :  and  his,  too, 
was  the  blessing  promised  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount.  '  Blessed  are  the  meek:  for  they  shall 
inherit  the  earth.'f  Paul  was  '  poor,  yet  making 
many  rich ;  as  having  nothing,  and  yet  possess- 
ing all  things. 'J  Natural  weakness  enhances  the 
moral  force  by  which  the  Gospel  thus  makes  pro- 
gress. By  faith  the  very  weakness  is  turned  into 
strength,  just  as  in  Christian  experience  sorrow 
also  is  turned  into  joy.     How  deep  is  the  truth  in 

*  '  Le  caractere  que  ces  larmes  revelent  fait  une  des  puissances  de 
son  apostolat.  Cette  puissance  opere  en  gagnant  les  cceurs  a 
l'Apotre :  chacun  se  sent  attire  vers  cet  homme  en  qui  la  faculte 
d'aimer  a  pris  un  developpement  extraordinaire;  et  comme  les  plus 
grands  obstacles  que  rencontre  l'Evangile  sont  ceux  qu'il  trouve 
dans  la  volonte,  e'est  avoir  proven u  l'auditeur  en  faveur  de  l'Evan- 
gile, que  de  l'avoir  prevenu  en  faveur  de  celui  qui  l'annonce.  Elle 
opere,  en  multipliant  les  moyens  d'action  de  l'Apotre  ;  cette  famille 
fratemelle  qui  se  groupe  aupres  d'un  mattre  si  aitnant  forme  autour 
de  lui  comme  une  sainte  phalange  ....  A.  Monod,  p.  74.  Com- 
pare p.  80.      See  '  Companions  of  St.  Paul,'  p.  108. 

t  Matt.v.  6.  f  2  Cor.  v.  10. 


TENDERNESS    AND    SYMPATHY.  I35 

our  Lord's  words  : — c  Whosoever  will  be  chief 
among  you,  let  him  be  your  servant !  '*  May  He 
enable  us,  as  He  enabled  Paul,  '  by  love  to  serve 
one  another/ f  yea  to  be  '  the  servants  of  all,  for 
Jesus'  sake ! '% 

*  Matt.  xx.  27.  f  GaL  v«  *3»  +  2  Cor.  iv.  & 


LECTURE  III. 

CONSCIENTIOUSNESS   AND 
INTEGRITY. 


"Wouldst  thou  be  faithful  to  do  that  work  that  God  hath  appointed 
thee  to  do  in  this  world  for  His  name  ?  then  make  much  of  a 
trembling  heart  and  conscience ;  for  though  the  Word  be  the  line 
and  rule  whereby  we  must  order  and  govern  all  our  actions,  yet  a 
trembling  heart  and  tender  conscience  is  of  absolute  necessity  for 
our  so  doing.  A  hard  heart  can  do  nothing  with  the  word  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

Keep,  then,  thy  conscience  awake  with  wrath  and  grace,  with 
heaven  and  hell ;  but  let  grace  and  heaven  bear  sway.  Paul  made 
much  of  a  tender  conscience,  else  he  had  never  done  as  he  did,  nor 
suffeFed  what  we  read  of.  '  And  herein,'  saith  he,  '  do  I  exercise 
myself,  to  have  always  a  conscience  void  of  offence  toward  God  and 
toward  men.'  But  this  could  not  a  stony,  benumbed,  bribed,  de- 
luded, or  a  muzzled  conscience  do.  Paul  was  like  the  nightingale 
with  his  breast  against  the  thorn.  That  his  heart  might  still  keep 
waking,  he  would  accustom  himself  to  the  meditation  of  those 
things  that  should  beget  both  love  and  fear ;  and  would  always  be 
very  chary,  lest  he  offended  his  conscience. 

John  Bunyan. 


III. 

CONSCIENTIOUSNESS  AND  INTEGRITY. 

"Herein  do  I  exercise  myself,  to  have  ahcays  a  conscience  void  of  offence 
toward  God  and  toward  men" — Acts  xxiv.  16. 

The  subject  of  the  course  of  Lectures,  of  which 
the  present  is  the  third,  is  the  personal  character 
of  the  Apostle  Paul.  The  purposes  to  be  kept  in 
mind  during  the  inquiry  were  three  —  first,  to 
observe  how  far  the  same  character  comes  into  view 
from  an  examination  both  of  the  Acts  and  the 
Epistles,  thus  furnishing  an  argument  for  the 
authenticity  of  all  these  documents ;  secondly,  to 
consider  how  far  the  character  is  not  only  har- 
monious and  identical,  but  strongly  marked  and 
definite,  and  thus  inconsistent  with  all  notion  of 
Christianity  having  grown  up  into  its  New  Testa- 
ment form  in  an  accidental  and  traditionary  man- 
ner; and  thirdly,  and  most  especially,  to  turn  this 


I4O  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

pattern  of  Apostolic  character  to  some  practical 
account  for  the  benefit  of  our  souls.  I  excuse 
myself  for  repeating  this,  because  the  congregation 
is  now  in  some  considerable  degree  changed.  Of 
those  who  were  present  on  the  first  Sunday  of  this 
month,  very  many  are  not  present  now  :  and  of 
those  who  are  here  assembled,  many  are  now  in 
this  church  for  the  first  time  in  their  lives.* 

The  first  topic  under  consideration  was  the  Tact 
and  Presence  of  Mind  of  the  Apostle,  the  second, 
his  Tenderness  and  Sympathy.  The  present  dis- 
course I  propose  to  devote  to  his  Conscientiousness 
and  Integrity.  Thus  we  are  following  an  obvious 
and  useful  order  of  progression.  If  the  first 
feature  of  character  was  chiefly  natural,  and  (so  to 
speak)  intellectual  quite  as  much  as  moral,  and  if 
the  second  had  main  reference  to  the  emotional 
side  of  the  Apostle's  temperament,  now  we  are, 
if  not  necessarily  on  religious  ground,  at  least  on 

*  Sec  the  note  on  Lecture  I.  p.  5.  The  present  Lecture  was 
delivered  just  after  the  beginning  of  the  full  business  of  the  Univer- 
sity Term. 


CONSCIENTIOUSNESS    AND    INTEGRITY.     I4I 


distinctively  moral  ground.  Nor  does  this  change 
harmonise  badly  with  the  above-mentioned  change 
in  the  nature  of  the  congregation.  If  there  is 
any  subject  on  which  a  preacher  might  wish  to 
address  some  affectionate  words  to  those  who  are 
newly  come  to  the  University,  it  is  the  subject  of 
Conscience.  Mav  God  graciously  give  His  help  to 
this  poor  endeavour  to  make  the  example  of  St. 
Paul  itself  preach  the  sei  mon  1 

f  Herein  do  I  exercise  myself/  he  says  to  Felix, 
'to  have  always  a  conscience  void  of  offence 
toward  God  and  toward  men/*  He  states  here 
a  cardinal  principle  of  his  whole  life :  and  every 
word  which  he  uses  in  the  sentence  is  worthy  of 
our  closest  attention.  There  is  no  selection  be- 
tween one  duty  and  another,  or  between  one  class 
of  duties  and  another — but  alike  'toward  God' 
and  ' toward  men,'  and  '  always,'  he  seeks  to  have 
his  conscience  { void  of  offence'  As  to  the  mean- 
ing of  this  last  expression,  it  must,  in  regard  to 
God,   denote  the  avoidance  of  all  breach  of  the 

*  Acts  xxiv.  1 6. 


142  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

Divine  law — and  also  in  regard  to  man,  the  chief 
reference  must  be  to  the  avoidance  of  all  thoughts 
and  acts  which  are  unjust  to  other  men.  Still  it 
is  worthy  of  remark  (if  only  in  anticipation  of  a 
part  of  the  subject  which  will  be  noticed  towards 
the  conclusion)  that  in  one  of  the  two  other  places 
where  this  word  occurs  in  the  New  Testament,  it 
refers  to  the  causing  of  the  occasions  of  sin  to 
others.  But  there  is  another  word  in  the  sen- 
tence to  which  I  desire  particularly  to  call  atten- 
tion— the  word  c  exercise.*  Literally  it  means  '  to 
go  into  training/  And  this  training — this  Chris- 
tian a<Jicr)(ji<i — this  habit  of  self-discipline,  as  a 
necessary  means  of  keeping  the  conscience  in  a 
sound  and  healthy  state  —  is  a  serious  subject 
which  in  this  day  we  are  apt  to  forget.  But, 
airain,  if  we  combine  this  sentence  with  another 
sentence  used  by  the  Apostle  a  very  short  time 
before,  and  recorded  in  the  same  part  of  the  Acts, 
we  reach  a  further  and  an  important  point. 
Standing  before  the  Sanhedrim,  he  began  a  fear- 
less speech  with  these  words — '  Brethren,  I  have 


CONSCIENTIOUSNESS    AND    INTEGRITY.    I43 

lived  in  all  good  conscience  before  God  until  this 
day/*  Here  the  Apostle  asserts  that  he  had 
always  been  a  carefully  conscientious  man.  This 
statement  takes  in  the  period  before  his  conver- 
sion. The  words  cover  all  the  ground  from  his 
early  manhood  to  the  eve  of  his  voyage  to  Rome.t 
Further  elucidation  also  of  this  topic  is  to  be 
obtained  from  something  else  recorded  in  the 
neighbouring  context.  In  fact  it  is  remarkable 
(as  was  noticed  in  the  first  Lecture)  how  the  word 
conscience  seems  engraved,  as  it  were,  on  this  part 
of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and  especially  on  the 
speech  addressed  to  Festus  and  Agrippa.  Speak- 
ing to  them  of  the  time  before  his  conversion,  St. 
Paul  says,  1 1  thought  that  I  ought  to  do  many 
things  contrary  to  the  name  of  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth/! His  persecution  of  the  Christians  was 
itself  undertaken  as  a  matter  of  conscientious 
duty.  And  then  further,  in  the  account  of  the 
moment  of  the  Conversion,  we  must  recollect 
that  it  is  only  in  this  one  of  the  three  narratives 
*  Acts  xxiii.  1.     t  See  Acts  xxii.  3  ;  and  2  Tim.  i.  3.    %  Acts  xxvi.  9. 


144  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 


of  that  event*  that  the  significant  phrase  occurs, 
'  It  is  hard  for  thee  to  kick  against  the  pricks^f 
By  which  I  presume  we  must  understand  that 
certain  inward  compunctions  had,  for  some  little 
time  at  least,  been  felt,  and  that,  though  the  de- 
luded view  of  duty  still  prevailed,  yet  the  perse- 
cutor's mind  was  ill  at  ease.J     It  was  in  fact  the 

*  See  p.  48.  In  Acts  ix.  5,  vhe  words  <TK\f)p6v  croi  irphs  aevTptx 
\ckti£siv  are  an  interpolation  from  xxvi.  14. 

f  Acts  xxvi.  14. 

J  Exception  has  been  taken  to  this  view,  on  the  ground  that 
Paul  was  in  the  full  course  of  persecution  when  he  was  struck  down 
to  the  ground,  and  that  there  is  no  symptom  of  any  previous  pause 
in  his  cruelty  and  rage.  But  the  word  nivrpov  must  denote  some- 
thing which  was  felt.  And  who  knows  what  misgivings  he  may 
have  have  had  from  the  moment  of  Stephen's  death  ?  All  such 
misgivings  his  blinded  conscience  would  urge  him  to  repress,  till  he 
saw  his  mistake  ;  and  then  his  conscience  became  active  on  the  side 
cf  Christianity.  See  A.  Monod  (pp.  ic8,  109).  'Saul  ne  se  rend 
pas,  il  n'en  est  que  plus  enflamme  de  colere  contre  celui  qu'Etienne 
invoque  avec  tant  de  foi,  et  en  qui  il  s'endort  avec  tant  de  paix  .  .  . 
Et  pourtant,  que  savons-nous  si  cette  vue  ne  deposa  pas  dans  le 
coeur  de  Saul  une  premiere  inquietude,  un  premier  doute,  salutaire  ? 
Que  savons-nous  si  cette  inquietude,  si  ce  doute,  repousse  d'abord 
comme  une  tentation  importune,  traduit  peut-etre  en  amertume  et 
en  violence,  ne  prepara  pas  les  voies  pour  la  scene  de  Damas  ? '  De 
Pressense  says  the   same   thing  more    confidently,    and     perhaps 


CONSCIENTIOUSNESS    AND    INTEGRITY.     I45 

point  of  transition  from  a  conscience  blinded  to 
a  conscience  enlightened.  And  mark  the  phrase 
too  in  which  he  expresses  his  ready  acceptance  of 
the  light  when  it  did  come.  '  Immediately  I  was 
not  disobedient  to  the  heavenly  vision/*  He 
obeyed  his  conscience  on  the  right  path,  as  he 
had  obeyed  it  on  the  wrong  path.  No  doubt  all 
this  was  a  lesson — a  most  solemn  lesson — and 
intended  to  be  such — for  Festus  and  Agrippa. 
Their  present  duty  was  expressed  in  his  past  expe- 
rience. But  all  that  I  am  concerned  to  urge  here 
is  the  stress  the  Apostle  lays  on  conscience,  and 
his  method  of   illustrating   his  teaching    on    the 

rather  too  strongly.  '  On  se  tromperait  si  l'on  pensait  que  la  con- 
version de  saint  Paul  a  ete  operee  instantanement,  comme  par  un 
coup  de  foudre.  II  y  avait  long  temps — c'est  Jesus-Christ  lui-meme 
qui  nous  l'apprend — qu'il  etait  poursuivi  par  Yaiguillon  divin,  au 
jour  ou  il  fut  terrasse  sur  le  chemin  de  Damas  (p.  207).  Savez- 
vous,  mes  freres,  ce  qui  excite  surtout  la  colere  de  Saul  ?  c'est 
qu'une  voix  repond  dans  son  cceur  a  la  voix  d'Etienne  et  confirme 
son  temoignage  sur  le  neant  de  la  piete  pharisaxque  .  .  .  .  Et  pour- 
tant  Puiguillon  divin  s'etait  enfonce  dans  son  coeur  ;  il  ne  Ten  arra- 
chera  plus  :  a  sa  colere  on  peut  mesurer  son  trouble  '  (pp.  212,  213). 
II  ne  fuyait  avec  cet  empressement  que  parce  qu'il  se  sentait  a  demi 
vaincu'  (p.  219). 
*  Acts  xxvi.  1 9. 


1+6         THE     CHARACTER     OF     ST     PAUL. 

subject,  by  his  own  lifelong  habit  of  obeying  con- 
science. 

It  will  be  useful  now  (before  proceeding  to  de- 
tails) to  turn  to  a  totally  different  period  of  the 
great  Apostle's  life.  I  take  into  my  hand  his 
Pastoral  Epistles,  and  all  the  more  willingly 
because  they  have  been  recently  not  only  doubted, 
but  confidently  pronounced,  in  some  quarters,  to 
be  post-apostolic*  Here  we  have— not  narratives 
with  speeches  interspersed  —  but  three  letters, 
written  evidently  about  the  same  time,  and  under 
the  influence  of  strong  personal  feeling.  What 
can  we  gather  from  hence  in  regard  to  our  special 

*  Thus  Ewuld,  who  never  hesitates,  goes  further  than  Schleier- 
macher  or  De  Wette,  and  decidedly  places  these  Epistles  apart  from 
the  Pauline  writings.  I  venture  to  think  that,  by  small  touches,  in 
such  points  as  those  which  are  brought  forward  in  these  Lectures,  we 
can  trace  the  same  man  who  writes  the  other  Epistles  and  speaks  in 
the  Acts,  and  can  thus  bring  forward  identity  of  character  as  a  sufficient 
answer  to  objections  derived  from  other  considerations.  One  of  the 
most  marked  features  of  resemblance  is  that  which  is  under  con- 
sideration in  the  present  Lecture.  Another,  equally  marked,  is  the 
sobriety  and  discrttion  which  are  as  conspicuous  in  these  communi- 
cations to  Timothy  and  Titus  as  they  are  in  the  Acts  and  the  other 
Epistles. 


CONSCIENTIOUSNESS    AND    INTEGRITY.     I47 

subject,  both  as  to  teaching  and  example  ?  Of  all 
the  peculiarities  both  of  style  and  matter  in  these 
Epistles  (and  they  are  not  a  few*)   hardly  any  is 

*  These  Epistles  are  in  style  and  verbal  characteristics  so  different 
from  St.  Paul's  other  writings,  and  yet  so  like  one  another,  that  I 
wonder  good  scholars  and  careful  chronologists  have  not  seen,  on 
this  ground  alone,  the  difficulty  of  assigning  them  to  any  but  the 
latest  period  of  the  Apostle's  life.  I  may  mention,  for  instance, 
two  very  different  authors,  Wieseler,  ('  Chronol.  des  Apostol.  Zeitalt.' 
329-355,)  and  Archdeacon  Evans,  ('  Script.  Biog.'  iii.  327-333.) 
The  conclusions  of  the  former  have  been  restricted  by  the  theory 
(adopted  by  de  Pressense  among  others)  that  there  was  no  second 
imprisonment  at  Rome.  This  is  a  mere  theory ;  and  if  we  reject 
it,  the  difficulty  arising  from  difference  of  style  appears  to  me  to 
vanish.  Let  any  one  who  is  accustomed  to  much  writing  ob- 
serve the  change  in  his  own  style  after  even  a  few  years,  and  let  him 
consider  the  struggle,  conflict,  and  controversy  which  St.  Paul  went 
through,  the  perpetual  strain  upon  his  feelings,  and  the  approach  of 
old  age  ;  and  he  will  be  at  no  loss  to  comprehend  the  verbal  pheno- 
mena of  the  Pastoral  Letters.  Nor  must  we  exaggerate  the  contrast 
of  style  which  is  admitted.  We  do  still  see  here,  as  de  Pressense 
says,  '  le  style  si  caracteristique  de  l'Ap6tre.  .  .  .  Cette  phrase 
heurtee,  coupee  d'incidentes  innombrables,  entrelacant  les  idees  et 
les  mots  dansune  confusion  apparente  qui  n'est  que  l'embarras  de 
la  richesse,  brisee  sans  ces^e  pourrepondre  aux  elans  impetueux  de 
sa  pensee  ;t  de  ses  sentiments,  ne  porte-t-elle  pas  toute  vive  l'em- 
preinte  de  son,  individuality  ? '  p.  326.  Even  in  special  words  and 
phrases,  as  well  as  doctrinal  statements,  there  is  no  lack  of  close  re- 
semblances to  the  other  Epistles  and  the  speeches  in  the  Acts. 

L   2 


I48  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

more  remarkable  than  the  emphatic  and  repeated 
references  to  conscience.  It  would  seem  as  though 
this  Apostle's  maturest  judgment  and  prolonged  ex- 
perience (if  we  may  use  these  words  of  one  who 
acted  and  wrote  under  special  Divine  direction) 
led  him,  at  the  close  of  his  varied  life,  to  feel  more 
deeply  than  ever  on  this  momentous  question.  He 
begins  the  first  of  these  letters  by  saying  that  '  the 
end  of  the  commandment  is  charity  out  of  a  good 
conscience:3*  and  at  the  close  of  that  same  chapter 
he  charges  Timothy  to  hold  fast  '  faith  and  a  good 
conscience,3 -j-  which  some,  he  adds,  '  having  put 
away,  have  made  shipwreck/  Again  below,  in 
the  same  Epistle,  the  charge  is  given  that  the 
deacons  are  to  f  hold  the  mystery  of  the  faith  in  a 
pure  conscience3% — possibly  in  allusion  to  theis 
pecuniary  responsibility  —  a  subject  to  which  I 
shall  have  occasion  soon  to  allude. §  And  once 
more,  in  the  same  Epistle,  we  have  a  solemn  pas- 
sage   concerning    men    '  whose    consciences   were 

*   i  Tim.  i.  5.         f  lb.  19.         J  1  Tim.  iii.  9. 
§  See  notes  below,  pp.  161,  170,  172. 


CONSCIENTIOUSNESS    AND     INTEGRITY.     I49 

seared  with  a  hot  iron  ;'*  their  '  own  consciences ' 
it  is  in  the  original,  as  if  to  mark  most  strongly 
the  individual  consciousness  of  their  own  responsi- 
bility. They  were  like  branded  slaves  who  knew 
their  guilt.  And  a  passage  in  the  Epistle  to 
Titus  is  similar,  concerning  those  c  whose  mind 
and  conscience  is  defiled. 'f  But,  it  will  be  said, 
this  is  all  the  language  of  precept,  and  has  no- 
thing to  do  with  St.  Paul's  personal  character.  Turn 
then  to  the  Second  Epistle  to  Timothy,  which  he 
begins  in  words  very  similar  to  those  that  were 
spuken  to  Festus  and  Agrippa,  and  with  an 
abruptness  almost  as  startling  as  that  with  which 
he  addressed  the  Sanhedrim,  '  I  thank  God,  whom 
I  serve  from  my  forefathers  with  pure  conscience.* 'J 
How  much  light  this  throws  on  the  words  used  in 
the  opening  part  of  the  First  Epistle  to  Timothy 
— to  this  effect,  that,  c  blasphemer,  persecutor,  and 
injurious  '§  as  he  had  been,  yet  he  obtained  mercy 
because  he  f  did  it  ignorantly  in  unbelief/     Even 

*  I  Tim.  iv.  2.  f  Tit.  i.  15.  %  2  Tim.  i.  3. 

§  1  Tim.  i.  13. 


I50  THE    CHARACTER     OF    ST    PAUL. 


then — in  those  clays  of  violent  opposition  to  the 
truth — he  had  not  disobeyed  his  conscience.  Surely 
there  is  close  similarity  here  with  what  we  have 
collected  from  one  particular  part  of  the  Acts,  in 
this  interchange  of  precept  and  practice,  and  in 
the  illustration  of  a  cardinal  principle  by  his  own 
steady  and  consistent  example. 

Pausing  here  for  a  moment,  we  observe,  that 
through  the  whole  of  St.  Paul's  life  (though  that 
life  consisted  of  two  very  different  parts,  one  in 
shade  and  the  other  in  light)  still  there  runs 
through  the  whole  texture — from  first  to  last— the 
one  golden  thread  of  an  honest  conscience.  Ques- 
tions of  the  utmost  moment  arise  here.  What 
precise  moral  estimate  are  we  to  take  of  an  honest 
conscience,  before  a  man  has  been  converted  to 
true  views  of  religion  ?  And  how  far  does  con- 
science itself  supply  a  standard  for  ascertaining 
what  are  true  views  of  religion  ?  Over  this  wide 
surface  of  serious  thought  I  cannot  attempt  to 
wander,  without  leaving  that  narrow  path 
which,  in  these  discourses,  I  have  thought  it  wiser 


CONSCIENTIOUSNESS    AND     INTEGRITY.     I5I 

and  safer  to  follow.  Our  subject  has  reference 
merely,  or  at  least  mainly,  to  the  facts  of  St.  Paul's 
character,  and  the  unity  and  consistency  of  that 
character,  as  exhibited  in  all  our  sources  of  infor- 
mation. Yet  it  may  just  be  observed  that  Paul 
does  himself,  by  God's  inspiration,  give  us  very  suffi- 
cient light  on  thoseother — thosegreatand  general — 
questions.  Of  that  early  period — that  dark  period — 
when,  though  a  persecutor,  he  was  still  conscientiously 
honest,  he  uses  the  language  of  the  very  deepest 
condemnation  and  penitence.*  It  is  evident  that 
he  did  not  think  conscience  in  itself  a  suffi- 
cient standard.  It  was  Revelation  which  gave 
the  light  to  Conscience:  not  Conscience  which 
pointed  the  way  to  Revelation.  Nay,  even  of  the 
Christian — the  spiritually-illuminated — conscience 
he  says,  c  I  know  nothing  against  myself  —  no 
known  sin  is  on  my  conscience  'f  (the  English 
Version  obscures  here  the  actual  verbal  connec- 

*  A  deep  and  abiding  sense  of  sire,  and  very  specially  of  this  sin, 
is  a  cardinal  point  in  the  character  of  St.  Paul  after  his  conver- 
sion. 

t  1  Cor.  iv.  4. 


152  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

tion*  with  our  subject),  fyet/  he  adds,  f  I  am  not 
hereby  justified  :  He  that  judgeth  me  is  the 
Lord/  Still  the  fact  of  this  continuous  conscien- 
tiousness, in  light  and  in  darkness,  remains  as  an 
immovable  feature  of  character:  and  this  is  our 
present  subject,  f     As  to  the  great  questions  which 

*  OuSej/  ifiavTql  (TvvoiZa.     His  cvfeldrjais  was  pure. 

t  Stier,  in  commenting  on  Acts  xxii.,  on  the  one  hand,  points 
out  that  St.  Paul,  even  in  his  persecuting  days,  did  not  act  from 
interested  motives  (p.  169),  that  he  did  not  consciously  know 
Whom  he  was  opposing  (p.  174),  that  the  instantaneous  question, 
'  What  shall  I  do,  Lord  ? '  draws  a  sharp  line  of  contrast  between 
him  and  the  hypocritical  enemies  of  Jesus  (pp.  178,  179),  and  that 
the  words  addressed  to  Ananias  (vv.  14,  15)  concerning  the  'seeing 
and  heaiing,'  imply  an  honest  desire  to  see  and  to  hear  (p.  186)  :  but, 
on  the  other  hand,  he  notes  that  Paul  had  not  till  his  conversion  the 
1  true  pure  conscience,  sprinkled  with  the  blood  of  the  Lamb ' 
(p.  171),  and  that  deep  guilt  is  implied  in  the  phrase  '  Arise,  and  be 
baptized,  and  wash  au-ay  thy  sins'  (p.  189).  A.  Monod, after  point- 
ing out  that  St.  Paul's  conversion  was  no  mere  outward  reform  or 
progressive  amendment,  no  mere  acceptance  of  a  moral  law  or  of 
certain  religious  principles  (pp.  87-89),  gives  very  strongly  the 
Divine  side  of  this  momentous  transaction  (pp.  103-106),  and  then, 
equally  strongly,  the  human  side  (pp.  106-1 12).  On  the  one  hand, 
'  La  conversion  est  l'oeuvre  de  Dicu :  c'est  un  germe  etranger 
depose  dans  notre  ame  par  une  main  etrangere  : '  on  the  other 
hand,  '  Toute  conversion  est  une  alliance  .  .  .  Cette  ignorance  le 
laissait  accessible  a  la  grace,  contre  laquelle  une  resistance  consciente 
te  volontaire  aurait  invinciblement  arme  son  cceur.' 


CONSCIENTIOUSNESS    AND    INTEGRITY.      153 

I  have  just  touched,  they  will  probably  never  be 
summed  up  better  than  in  the  words  of  Bishop 
Sanderson  :  (  His  zeal  had  been  good,  had  it  not 
been  blind.  His  will  did  not  run  cross  to  his 
judgment,  but  was  led  by  it.  The  error  was  in 
his  understanding  :  that  erroneous  judgment 
poisoned  all/* 

*  '  Works,'  ed.  Jacobson,  i.  91.  In  what  degrees  the  error  was 
caused  by  want  of  candid  inquiry  into  the  facts  of  Christianity,  by 
prejudice  in  the  study  of  the  Old  Testament,  by  the  pride  which 
ought  to  satisfy  God's  law  by  mere  legal  obedience,  and  by  the  in- 
dulgence of  the  passion  of  bigotry,  we  cannot  ascertain.  It  is  still 
true  that  Saul,  before  his  conversion,  went  where  conscience  pointed, 
and  that  the  error  was  in  the  light  which  conscience  carried.  Quo- 
tations have  been  given  above  from  one  of  Dr.  Newman's  later 
works.  I  may  add  here  some  sentences  from  his  '  Parochial  Ser- 
mons'  (ii.  pp.  115-118)  :  '  Saul  was  ever  faithful,  according  to  his 
notion  of  '  the  way  of  the  Lord.'  Doubtless  he  sinned  deeply  and 
grievously  in  persecuting  the  followers  of  Christ.  Had  he  known 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  he  never  would  have  done  so  .  .  .  But  he  was 
bred  up  in  a  human  school,  and  paid  more  attention  to  the  writings 
of  men  than  to  the  word  of  God  .  .  .  His  sin  was  very  great, 
because  he  certainly  might  have  learned  from  the  Old  Testament 
far  clearer  and  diviner  doctrine  than  the  tradition  of  the  Pharisees 
.  .  .  Still  he  differed  from  other  enemies  of  Christ  in  this,  that  he 
kept  a  clear  conscience,  and  habitually  obeyed  God  according  to  his 
knowledge.' 


154  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

Following  then  our  narrow  path,  let  us  inquire 
how  this  characteristic  of  the  Apostle  appears* 
elsewhere,  and  into  what  details  it  penetrates. 
His  consistent  habit  of  appealing  to  conscience 
should  be  particularly  observed.  We  might  take 
as  a  motto  describing  this  settled  principle,  those 
words  of  his  own  :  '  By  manifestation  of  the  truth 
commending  ourselves  to  every  man's  conscience 
in  the  sight  of  God:'*  which  again  he  supple- 
ments afterwards  thus:  'knowing  the  terror  of 
the  Lord,  we  endeavour  to  win  men ;  but  we  have 
been  made  manifest  to  God,  and  I  hope  we  have 
been  made  manifest  in  your  consciences.' f  And  we 
see  the  principle  exemplified  everywhere.  The 
speech  at  Csesarea  has  already  been  mentioned  : 
and  various  occasions  might  be  adduced,  in  which 
the  Jews  are  addressed,  as  for  instance  in  that 
solemn  quotation  from  Isaiah  at  the  end  of  the 
Acts."]:  But  especially  I  would  notice  his  mode 
of  addressing  the  Heathen — in  dealing  with  whom 
the  reference  is  direct  to  the  inward  moral  light — ■ 

*  2  Cor.  iv.  2.     f  lb.  v.  ii.     J  ^cts  xxviii.  25.     Isai.  vi.  9,  10. 


CONSCIENTIOUSNESS    AND    INTEGRITY.      I55 


to  conscience — that  Old  Testament  before  the  Old 
Testament.  The  speech  at  Lystra,  the  speech  at 
Athens,  were  both  appeals  to  conscience.  But  the 
great  and  copious  instance  is  to  be  found  in  the 
opening  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans.  'They 
were  without  excuse,  because  that,  when  they 
knew  God,  they  glorified  Him  not  as  God,  neither 
were  thankful :  '*  and  on  the  other  hand,  '  When 
the  Gentiles,  which  have  not  the  law,  do  by  nature 
the  things  contained  in  the  law,  these  are  a  law 
unto  themselves,  their  conscience  also  bearing  wit- 
ness.'t  And  as  with  the  great  natural  princi- 
ples of  religious  conviction,  so  with  the  details  of 
Christian  duty.  '  Let  every  man  prove  his  own 
work  : '%  '  with  goodwill  doing  service,  as  unto  the 
Lord  ;  '§  f  ye  must  needs  be  subject  to  the  higher 
powers,  not  only  for  wrath,  but  also  for  conscience 
sake/ 1|  And  if,  in  turning  from  one  of  these 
passages  to  another,  we  have  continually  an  inter- 
change between  PauPs  character  as  a    Christian 

*  Rom.  i.  20,  21.     f  lb-  "•  H>  1S-      +  Gal.  vi.  4.      §  Eph.  vi.  7, 
||  Rom.  xiii.  5. 


1$6  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

man,  and  Paul's  teaching  as  an  inspired  Apostle, 
this  again  is  no  loss  to  our  argument. 

A  further  point  is  his  solemn  warning  against 
trifling  with  conscience.  Here  again  one  of  his 
sentences  might  be  taken  as  a  motto  : — '  What- 
soever is  not  of  faith  is  sin/*  i.e.  whatever  you 
do,  thinking  it  to  be  wrong,  that  is  wrong  to  you, 
though  another  person,  who  thinks  it  right,  may 
do  the  same  thing  without  guilt.  '  He  that 
doubteth,  is  condemned '  if  he  doeth  it.f  '  Happy 
is  he  that  condemneth  not  himself  in  the  thing 
which  he  alloweth.'J  ( Let  every  man  be  fully 
persuaded  in  his  own  mind'§  And  as  were  his 
injunctions  to  others,  so  was  his  practice  as  regards 
himself.  He  did  not  trifle  with  his  own  conscience. 
'  We  labour  that  we  may  be  accepted  of  Him'fl  — 
fin  all  things  approving  ourselves'** —  'not  as 
pleasing  men,  but  God,  which  trieth  our  hearts.'ft 
(  Our  rejoicing  is  this,  the  testimony  of  our  con- 
science, that  in  simplicity  and  godly  sincerity  we 

*  Rom.  xiv.  23.      f  lb.       J  lb.  22.       §  lb.  5.      ||  2  Cor.  v.  9. 
**  lb.  vi.  4.  ft  l  Thess.  ii.  4. 


CONSCIENTIOUSNESS    AND    INTEGRITY.     I57 

have  had  our  conversation  in  the  world/*  Nor 
could  such  passages,  scattered  thus  here  and  there 
through  the  Epistles,  be  summed  up  more  accara- 
tely  and  completely  than  in  the  words  which  I 
read  at  the  outset  from  the  Acts,  'Herein  do  I 
exercise  myself,  to  have  always  a  conscience  void  of 
offence  toward  God  and  toward  men.9 

Now  I  do  not  think  I  should  be  faithful  to  the 
responsibility  in  which  I  happen  to  be  placed,  if, 
before  passing  to  the  next  subdivision  of  the  sub- 
ject, I  did  not  myself  make  an  appeal  to  con- 
science, and  intreat  my  younger  hearers  to  beware 
of  trifling  with  conscience.  I  have  been  laying 
stress  on  this,  that  Paul  had  always  been  a  con- 
scientious man.  I  do  not  say  that  his  con- 
scientiousness led  to  his  conversion.  Far,  very 
far  from  it.  But  he  was  not  a  rescued  profligate. 
(  Chief  of  sinners/t  indeed  he  was,  as  I  believe 
every  man  is,  when,  with  the  full  light  of  the 
Divine  Law  on  his  face,  he  sees  himself  in  the 
glass  of  conscience.  But  he  was  no  illustration 
*  2  Cor.  1,  12.  f  i  Tim.  1.  15. 


I58  THE    CHARACTER    OF     ST   PAUL. 


of  the  execrable  maxim  that  e  the  greatest  sinner 
makes  the  greatest  saint/  It  is  remarkable  that 
there  is  no  trace  of  any  of  the  great  religious 
teachers  of  the  New  Testament  having  been  other 
than  strictly  upright,  chaste,  and  moral  Jews. 
Perhaps  this  has  not  always  been  considered  as 
carefully  as  it  might  have  been.  What  if  St. 
Paul  were  known  to  have  led  a  dissolute  youth 
when  he  was  learning  theology  from  Gamaliel  at 
Jerusalem?  How  would  this  have  affected  our 
estimate  of  Christianity,  or  at  least  our  feeling  in 
regard  to  his  subsequent  teaching  ?  But,  leaving 
that  question  unanswered,  I  do  not  think  he  could 
have  spoken  as  he  did  on  those  numerous  ccca- 
sions  if  he  had  ever  led  a  frivolous  and  self-indul- 
gent life,  certainly  not  unless  his  life  had  been 
correct  and  morally  pure.  It  is  this  power  in  the 
present  of  being  able  to  refer  with  a  clear  con- 
science to  the  past  (or  in  your  case,  my  younger 
brethren,  the  power  in  the  future  of  referring  with 
a  clear  conscience  to  the  present)  of  which  I  am 
speaking.     I  am  not  now  comparing  one  sin  with 


CONSCIENTIOUSNESS    AND    INTEGRITY.      159 

another  in  regard  to  inherent  deadliness ;  though 
our  plain-speaking  Litany  is  only  the  echo  (in 
earnest  prayer)  of  very  clear  and  distinct  words 
in  the  Bible.*  But  some  sins  have  a  terrible 
effect  on  character,  lowering  the  moral  tone, 
blunting  the  finer  sensibilities,  disturbing  the  in- 
stincts of  conscience.  How  else  can  we  explain 
the  conversation  sometimes  heard  from  older  men, 
who,  when  passion  is  gone,  give  all  the  sanction 
of  their  grey  hairs  to  a  vile  Heathen  standard  in 
a  Christian  country  ?  Some  of  those  who  hear 
me  are  destined  for  the  Sacred  Ministry.  Let  me 
single  them  out.  Not  that  this  subject  has  special 
reference  to  any  one  class  :  for  all  must  exert  in- 
fluence, and,  in  the  case  of  all,  the  present  is  the 
parent  of  the  future.  Nor  can  I  help  here  ex- 
pressing a  conviction  (which  has  been  deeply 
impressed  upon  me  by  facts  very  evident  to  all) 
that  vice  among  us  would  be  repressed  with  a 
firmer  hand  and  a  clearer  judgment,  if  there  were 
not    among    our    Magistrates,    and    among    the 

•  See  Matt.  v.  28  ;  1  Cor.  vi.  9,  10,  18  ;  Eph.  v.  $,6:  Col.  iii.  5,  6. 


l6o  THE    CHARACTER     OF    ST    PAUL. 

members  of  our  Legislature,  some  whose  past 
lives  have  left  a  hollow  consciousness  of  guilt,  and 
therefore  a  faltering  and  a  weakness  which  dares 
not  rise  to  the  Christian  standard.  But  my  ap- 
peal is  chiefly  to  you,  who  have  the  Sacred  Ministry 
in  prospect. 

I  intreat  you  often  to  consider  what  your  future 
feelings  will  be,  in  your  sacred  office,  when  you 
look  back  on  the  present.  The  power  of  speaking 
then,  as  we  have  seen  that  St.  Paul  spoke,  will  be 
worth  more  than  all  your  self-denial  now.  I 
know  what  persuasive  maxims  are  current  in  your 
society,  as  in  other  society.  f  All  young  men  are 
alike/  I  have  often  heard  that.  But  that  is 
false.  No  falsehood  invented  by  the  Father  of 
Lies  was  ever  more  false.  If  Cambridge  is  what 
it  was  twenty-five  years  ago,*  there  is  very  little 
excuse  for  a  young  man  leading  there  an  immoral 
life.  Use  the  means  of  grace.  Be  diligent  in 
prayer.  Be  punctual  in  study.  Take  your  cheer- 
ful share  (moderately)  in  manly  recreation.  And 
when  your  time  comes  for  the  direct  respon- 
*  This  was  preached  in  1862. 


CONSCIENTIOUSNESS    AND    INTEGRITY.       l6l 

sibility  of  seeking  the  salvation  of  souls — then 
you  will  have  the  honest  strength  which  arises 
from  conscious  rectitude — past  struggles  will  give 
you  sympathy  with  those  who  are  tempted — and 
yet  you  will  not  be  ashamed  to  speak  plainly — for, 
by  God's  promised  grace,  your  conscience  (again  to 
quote  the  Apostle's  words  in  those  serious  letters) 
has  been  kept  e  good '  and  '  pure/  and  has 
neither  been  c  seared  '*  nor  l  defiled/f 

But,  once  more  to  proceed  along  our  prescribed 
path, St.  Paul's  conscientiousness  and  integrity  show 
themselves  in  ajine  sense  of  honour  in  regard  to  pecu- 
niary  transactions.  His  precepts  concerning  honesty 
and  fraud  it  is  not  necessary  to  quote.J  But  his 
practice  corresponds  with  his  precepts.  And  very 
remarkable  it  is,  and  very  instructive,  to  see  that 
a  man  of  such  exalted  enthusiasm  does  not  think 
even  the  details  of  money-matters  beneath  his 
attention. §     But  if,  as  was  observed  on  a  former 

*  i  Tim.  i.  5,  iv.  2  ;  2  Tim.  i.  3.  f  Tit.  i.  15. 

J  See  Rom.  xiii.  8  ;  2  Thess.  iii.  10. 

§  In  conversation,  after  this  Lecture  was  delivered,  my  attention 

M 


\6l  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

occasion,*  Love  is  scrupulous  and  delicate  in  its 
attention  to  detail,  so  also  is  Conscience. f 

It  would  be  fanciful  to  dwell  too  much  upon 
one  thing  which  is  said  in  the  Acts,  namely,  that 
at  Caesarea  Felix  hoped  that  '  money  would  have 
been  given  him  of  Paul,  that  he  might  loose 
him' J  from  prison,  and  therefore  that  he  '  sent 

was  called  to  the  very  large  reference  to  money  matters  which  occurs 
in  St.  Paul's  Epistles.  The  way  to  see  this  is  to  read  the  Epistles 
through,  from  beginning  to  end,  with  this  subject  in  view.  May 
we  not  say  that  this  may  partly  be  due  to  the  fact  that  he  was  a  Jew, 
and  familiar  from  early  life  with  pecuniary  transactions  ?  See  •  Life 
and  Epistles,'  i.  p.  60.  This  would  not  in  any  way  derogate  from 
the  authority  of  his  Divine  teaching  on  the  subject ;  for  God  chooses 
His  instruments  suitably.  And  this  may  be  added  with  truth,  that 
such  minute  reference  to  that  which  must  be  the  daily  business  of  a 
large  portion  of  mankind,  is  an  indication  of  the  practical  fitness  of 
Christianity  to  our  condition. 

*  See  p.  116. 

f  A  remarkable  and  instructive  feature  in  St.  Paul's  writings  is 
his  easy  transition  from  small  details  to  great  truths.  He  carries 
common  circumstances  rapidly  and  at  once  up  to  high  principles, 
and  descends  in  the  same  way,  without  effort,  from  the  highest 
point  down  to  common  ground.  It  is  this  kind  of  combination  — 
this  living  our  ordinary  life  as  in  the  presence  of  great  realities— 
which  we  find  so  difficult. 

J  Acts  xxiv.  26. 


CONSCIENTIOUSNESS    AND    INTEGRITY.       163 

for  him  the  oftener.'  Still  whatever  occurs  in 
Scripture  should  be  well  marked.  Felix  knew, 
from  what  had  been  previously  said  about  the 
alms  brought  to  Judaea,  that  Paul's  friends  would 
have  had  no  difficulty  in  finding  a  bribe,  if  either 
his  conscience  or  theirs  would  have  allowed  them 
to  give  one.  Paul,  too,  need  have  taken  no  part 
in  the  transaction ;  and  he  would  thus  have  been 
set  free  for  again  preaching  the  Gospel.  But  the 
New  Testament  contains  nothing  of  this  kind  to 
shock  our  moral  taste.  '  Whatsoever  things  are 
honest,  lovely,  and  of  good  report/*  that  was  the 
Apostolic  standard. 

Delicacy  of  conscience,  in  regard  to  pecuniary 
claims,  is  shown  by  St.  Paul  in  what  he  says  to 
Philemon  concerning  his  fugitive  slave,  Onesimus  : 
1  If  he  hath  wronged  thee,  or  oweth  thee  ought, 
put  that  on  my  account;  I,  Paul,  give  thee  a 
written  promise  with  my  own  hand  :  I  will  repay 
it.'f  Whatever  Philemon's  duty  might  be  as  to 
reconciliation  and  forgiveness,  the  Apostle    does 

*  Phil.  iv.  8.  f  Philem.  18,  19. 

M    % 


104  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

not  forget  the  duty  of  honestly  restoring  what  has 
been  dishonestly  obtained.* 

But  especially  we  are  called  to  observe  the  scru- 
pulous exactness  with  which  he  was  careful  to 
manage  all  the  business  relating  to  the  collecting 
and  conveying  of  those  alms,  to  which  allusion 
has  just  been  made.  Commissioners  were  chosen 
ly  the  churches  themselves  to  take  charge  of  the 
contributions.  (  When  I  come,'  he  writes  to  the 
Corinthians,  f  whomsoever  ye  shall  approve,  them 
will  I  send  with  lettersf  to  carry  your  charitable 
gift  to  Jerusalem  :  and  if  it  be  thought  right,  they 
shall  go  with  me.'J  And  what  was  done  at 
Corinth  was    done    elsewhere.       In    the    second 

*  The  reference  here  is  simply  to  money.  The  whole  letter 
shows  St.  Paul's  sense  of  what  in  all  1  spects  was  due  to  Philemon, 
and  his  scrupulous  reluctance  to  take  a  liberty.  This  general  consi- 
deration belongs  to  what  is  said  in  this  Lecture  on  fairness  (pp.  166, 
176),  and  to  what  is  said  in  the  preceding  Lecture  on  courtesy  (p. 

,10). 

f  This  is  surely  the  true  connection.  Bengel  gives  the  sense 
thus :  '  Quoscunque,  me  presente,  probaveritis  ut  fidos,  hos  cum 
litteris  vestro  nomine  mittam.' 

X  iCor.  xvi.  3,  4. 


CONSCIENTIOUSNESS    AND    INTEGRITY.       165 


Epistle  he  mentions  one  who  was  expressly  as- 
sociated with  Titus  in  this  office,  and  '  chosen  by 
the  churches  in  regard  to  this  charitable  gift  then 
in  process  of  ministration/*  Nor  was  all  this 
cautious  and  delicate  management  unnecessary; 
for  it  seems  that  both  he  and  Titus  had  been 
exposed  to  the  vulgar  charge  of  seeking  their  own 
profit  in  this  charitable  work.f  So  that  there  was 
very  good  reason  (as  there  always  is  in  such  trans- 
actions;];) for  shunning  even  the  semblance  of 
interested  motives.  We  should  observe  his  own 
statement :  — '  Carefully  avoiding,  lest  any  man 
should  blame  us  in  dealing  with  so  large  a  sum ;  '§ 
and  he  strengthens  this  by  a  quotation  which  he 
twice  makes  from  the  book  of  Proverbs :  (  Provid- 
ing things   honest,  in  the   sight,  not  only  of  the 

*  2  Cor.  viii.  19. 

f  lb.  xii.  18.     It  is  strange  to  see  the  same  accusation  renewed 
in  modern  times.     See  p.  201,  n. 

X  With  all  our  care  to  avoid  scandal,  misinterpretation   is  often 
inevitable.     It  was  while  Paul  was  anxiously  engaged  in  removing 
prejudice,  that  the  false  impression  arose  concerning  Trophimus. 

§  z  Cor.  viii.  20. 


l66  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

Lord,  but  of  men  ;  '*  in  other  words,  '  exercising ' 
himself  to  maintain  a  '  conscience/  not  only  in 
great  things  but  in  small  things — not  only  in  fact, 
but  in  appearance — c  void  of  offence  toward  God 
and  toward  men/ 

In  order  fully  to  appreciate  St.  PauPs  fine  sense 
of  propriety  and  duty,  we  ought  to  combine  with 
all  this  the  orderly,  punctual,  and  systematic  way 
in  which  he  advises  the  money  to  be  laid  up 
Sunday  by  Sunday, f  so  that  it  may  be  ready 
when  he  comes; — and  also  the  considerate  spirit 
of  fairness  in  which  he  invites,  without  dictating, 
^berality. %     In  two  forms  this  is  conspicuous  in 

*  Prov.  iii.  4.     See  Rom.  xii.  17. 

■f  It  would  be  irrelevant  to  meddle  here  with  existing  contro- 
versies on  *  the  offertory ; '  but  it  is  in  harmony  with  the  subject  of 
this  sermon  to  say  that  it  is  good  policy  as  regards  church  collections, 
and  a  good  rule  for  the  individual,  to  lay  stress  on  systematic 
giving.     Even  the  hints  of  Scripture  often  contain  great  principles. 

X  This  habit  of  inviting  without  dictating  is  a  mark  of  St.  Paul's 
character,  which  we  cannot  mistake,  and  it  is  one  which  might  have 
been  considered  in  the  previous  Lecture  under  the  head  of  courtesy. 
Here  it  is  rather  to  our  purpose  to  class  it  under  the  head  of  fair- 
ness. He  will  not  press  too  hardly  upon  those  on  whom  he  has  a 
claim.     See  p.  123,  n.  I. 


CONSCIENTIOUSNESS    AND    INTEGRITY.       167 

the  Apostle's  arguments.  First,  there  is  to  be  a 
fair  proportion  between  giving  and  having.  The 
gift  is  accepted  according  to  c  that  a  man  hath,  not 
according  to  that  he  hath  not/*  And  next,  no 
class  of  persons  is  to  be  unduly  taxed  in  compari- 
son with  others  :  {  Not  that  ye  should  be  burdened 
and  other  men  eased/f  The  principle  which  he 
urges  here  is  that  of  fair  reciprocity.  And  else- 
where we  find  the  same  principle  in  a  higher 
application.  The  Gentile  Christians  of  Mace- 
donia and  Achaia,  he  says  to  the  Romans,  are 
the  debtors  of  the  poor  Jewish  Christians  of 
Judaea  :  for  if  the  Gentiles  '  ha.ve  been  made  par- 
takers of  their  spiritual  things,  their  duty  is  to 
minister  to  them  in  carnal  things/J 

Following  this  same  principle  in  its  applications 

*  2  Cor.  viii.  12. 

f  lb.  viii.  13.  Generally  the  party  'eased'  are  supposed  to 
be  the  receivers  in  Judaea  as  opposed  to  the  givers  in  Macedonia 
and  Achaia.  But  I  confess  I  think  the  contrast  is  between  the 
va-repv/xa  of  the  poor  givers  in  Macedonia  and  the  Trepurceu/xa  of 
the  rich  givers  in  Achaia.  With  changing  circumstances  it  would 
be  fair  that  the  burden  should  be  transposed. 

%  Rom.  xv,  27. 


I<58  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

by  St.  Paul,  and  leaving  for  a  moment  the  subject 
of  money,  we  are  led  to  observe  how  fair  he  is 
towards  other  teachers,  how  exact  in  taking  credit 
only  for  the  work  which  has  been  done  by  him- 
self. This,  too,  may  be  classed  as  one  of  the 
instances  of  the  Apostle's  integrity.  He  will  not 
'  build  on  another  man's  foundation/  he  will  not 
f  boast  of  another  man's  labours/*  Within  the 
limits  of  his  own  missionary  work,  as  marked 
out  for  him  by  the  'rule'  of  God's  Providence, 
but  not  an  inch  beyond,  will  he  extend  his 
claim,  f 

We  are  prepared  now  to  understand  why  he  is 
so  keenly  sensitive  about  his  reputat\on.\  He 
cannot  bear  to  have  his  honesty  called  in  question. 
'  I  have  defrauded  no  man,'  he  says  in  a  letter  to 

*  Rom.  xv.,  20. 

t  2  Cor.  x.  13,  15,  16.  No  doubt  there  is  sarcasm  here,  and  a 
severe  censure  of  those  who  built  upon  his  foundation,  boasted 
where  they  had  no  claim,  and  disturbed  the  churches  which  he 
had  founded.  But  this  kind  of  honest  indignation  and  sense  of 
unfairness  on  their  part  is  a  proof  of  what  is  here  advanced.  A 
man  who  knows  what  is  due  to  others  is  generally  aware  of  what  is 
due  to  himself. 

X  See  Lecture  II.  p.  102. 


CONSCIENTIOUSNESS    AND    INTEGRITY.        l6<) 

the  Christians  of  Corinth  :*  '  I  have  coveted 
no  man's  silver  or  gold/f  ne  says  m  a  speech  to 
the  elders  of  Ephesus  :  and  all  this  he  proves  by 
literally  working  with  his  own  hands.  J  And  as 
with  his  honesty,  so  with  his  truthfulness.  He 
cannot  bear  to  have  his  word  doubted.  How 
often,  and  on  what  very  varied  occasions,  he  con- 
firms his  statements  with  an  oath !  To  take 
instances  from  three  Epistles  : — (  Behold,  before 
God  I  lie  not/§  ( As  God  is  true,  our  word  to- 
ward you  was  not  yea  and  nay/||  'I  say  the 
truth  in  Christ,  I  lie  not,  my  conscience  also  bear- 
ing me  witness  in  the  Holy  Ghost/** 

But  what  I  mainly  desire  to  lay  stress   on  here 
is  that — taking  our  lesson  from  St.  PauPs   course 

*  2  Cor.  vii.  2  f  Acts  xx.  33. 

%  A  further  point  is  to  be  noticed  here.  His  practice  was  to 
work  in  order  that  he  might  give  (Acts  xx.  35),  and  this  combi- 
nation of  honesty  and  liberality  he  strongly  urges  upon  others  (Eph. 
iv.  28).  It  is  sometimes  truly  said  that  a  man  ought  to  be  'just 
before  he  is  generous.'  It  is  a  higher  truth  still  that  a  man  must 
be  'just  in  order  to  be  generous.' 

§  Gal.  i.  2Q.  ||  z  Cor.  i.  18.  **  Rom.  ix.  1.  See  note  in 
Lecture  IV.  on  St.  Paul's  use  of  oaths. 


170  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

of  conduct  and  habitual  state  of  feeling — we  see 
that  carelessness  in  pecuniary  transactions  is  really 
sinful.  In  a  plain  English  way  of  stating  the 
matter,  St.  Paul  teaches  us  that  it  is  our  duty  to 
keep  our  accounts  exactly,  and  to  be  careful  that 
our  credit  rests  on  a  sound  basis.  Now  I  do  not 
forget  where  I  am  preaching  ;  but  there  are 
dangers  here,  as  well  as  in  the  mercantile  com- 
munity with  which  I  am  familiar.*  One  tempta- 
tion to  which  some  here  present  have  been 
exposed,  and  others  will  presently  be  exposed,  is 
the  temptation  to  incur  debtf — not  for  any  good 
reasons,  but  for  reasons  which  involve  no  real 
excuse.  Whatever  the  regulations  of  a  University 
may  be,  there  must  always  be  the  possibility  of 
inducements  to  extravagance ;  and  it  is  part  of  the 
wholesome  discipline  of  the   place  to  test  young 

*  The  reference  is  to  Liverpool. 

f  Viewed  in  connection  with  all  St.  Paul's  conduct  in  regard  to 
money,  how  forcible  does  his  precept  become  :  '  Qice  no  man  any- 
thing, but  to  love  one  another ! '  Rom.  xiii.  8.  The  word  "  debtor '» 
becomes  part  of  St.  Paul's  metaphorical  language,  and  is  used  by 
him  to  describe  spiritual  obligations.     See  also  i.  14,  viii.  12. 


CONSCIENTIOUSNESS    AND    INTEGRITY.       171 

men,  especially  such  as  are  of  limited  means, 
whether  they  have  the  power  of  resistance.  Some 
families  have  struggled  hard  to  send  some  students 
here :  and  it  is  a  poor  return  for  such  confidence 
to  spend  in  folly  what  rightly  belongs  to  younger 
brothers  and  sisters.  But  chiefly  I  would  again 
dwell  on  the  effect  which  the  present  has  on  the 
future.  I  have  seen  something  of  the  influence 
of  debt  upon  the  character,  and  I  can  assure  you 
that  it  is  enfeebling  and  lowering — that  it  tends 
to  take  off  the  fine  edge  of  conscience — and  that 
it  often  permanently  injures  the  whole  moral 
tone  of  those  who  once  were  scrupulously  honour- 
able. 

But  a  further  lesson  may  be  usefully  learnt  from 
this  aspect  of  St.  Paul's  conscientiousness.  In 
the  matter  of  the  collection  he  had  a  distinctly 
religious  object  in  view :  yet  he  did  not  conceive 
that  this  made  any  difference  in  regard  to  the  duty 
of  pecuniary  exactitude.  There  is  a  special 
danger,  which  sometimes  comes  in  the  way  of 
those  who  are  earnestly  engaged  in  philanthropic 


172  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

enterprises  :  and  here  again,  if  I  speak  of  what 
has  come  before  my  own  attention  and  affected 
my  own  feelings,  this  is  surely  the  natural  way  of 
preaching.  To  build  a  church  or  a  school,  and  to 
leave  your  own  tradesmen  unpaid  —  St.  Paul 
would  not  have  called  this  an  act  of  faith.  It  is 
just  the  kind  of  case  to  which  he  would  have 
applied  that  sentence  from  the  book  of  Proverbs.* 
I  can  testify  that  such  things  on  the  part  of  the 
Clergy — often  arising  from  mere  carelessness  or 
from  a  loose  habit  acquired  (possibly)  even  here  at 
the  University — produce  on  honourable  laymen, 
on  the  men  of  business  to  whom  credit  is  every- 
thing, a  very  painful  impression,  and  do  serious 
harm  to  the  cause  of  Christ. 

But  now,  once  more,  this  delicacy  of  con- 
science leads  to  a  thoughtful  consideration  for  the 
consciences  of  others.  A  man's  first  duty  is 
never  to  trifle  with  his  own  conscience;  his  second 
duty    is    never   to   trifle   with    the  consciences  of 

*  In  the  Pastoral  Epistles  it  is  said  most  strongly  that  the  Deacon 
or  the  Presbyter  must  not  be  otVxpoKepS^s,  1  Tim.  iii.  8 ;  Tit.  i.  7. 


CONSCIENTIOUSNESS    AND    INTEGRITY.       I73 


those  who,  like  himself,  are  in  a  world  of  respon- 
sibility and  trial.  What  you  think  right  another 
may  think  wrong :  and  though  he  may  be  mis- 
taken (which,  however,  is  not  certain),  you  may 
have  influence  with  him  (nay,  it  is  hardly  to  be 
doubted  that  you  have  influence  with  him),  and 
thus  you,  without  intending  it,  may  lead  him  into 
sin.  If  we  are  to  judge  of  the  importance  of  a 
point  of  Christian  ethics  by  the  space  given  to  it 
in  St.  Paul's  Epistles,  and  by  a  peculiar  mode  of 
lingering  over  it  and  returning  to  it,  as  if  he  could 
not  bear  to  leave  the  lesson  unlearnt — we  must 
conclude  that  hardly  anything  is  more  important 
than  this  scrupulous  consideration  for  the  con- 
sciences of  others.  What  Paul's  conduct  was  is 
shown  by  his  different  modes  of  dealing  with 
Timothy  and  Titus,*  and  by  his  own  ready  adop- 
tion of  a  Nazaritic  view.f     And  the  commentary 

*  Acts  xvi.  3  ;  Gal.  ii.  3-5.  If  circumcision  is  likely  to  remove 
scruples,  he  will  adopt  it ;  if  it  is  likely  to  entangle  the  conscience, 
he  will  resist  it.  See  also  note  above  (Lect.  I.  p.  58),  on  Timothy 
and  Titus. 

f  Acts  xxi.  20-26,  and  (possibly)  xviii.  18.     See  above,  p.  16,  n. 


174  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

on  that  conduct  is  to  be  found  in  his  two  longest 
Epistles,  in  each  of  which  more  than  one  whole 
chapter  is  devoted  to  the  subject :  'Who  art  thou, 
that judgest  another  man's  servant?  Judge  this 
rather,  that  no  man  put  a  stumbling-block  or  an 
occasion  to  fall  in  his  brother's  way/*  And 
again,  in  reference  to  what  had  been  offered  to 
idols  :  (  Some  with  conscience  of  the  idol  unto  this 
hour  eat  it  as  a  thing  offered  to  an  idol :  and  their 
conscience,  being  weak,  is  defiled/  '  If  any  man 
see  thee,  which  hast  knowledge,  sit  at  meat  in  the 
idoPs  temple,  shall  not  the  conscience  of  him  that 
is  weak  be  emboldened — and  through  thy  know- 
ledge shall  the  weak  brother  perish,  for  whom 
Christ  died  ?  'f  And  again  :  e  Whatsoever  is  sold 
in  the  shambles,  eat,  asking  no  question  for  con- 
science sake.  Whatsoever  is  set  before  you,  eat, 
asking  no  question  for  conscience  sake.  For  the 
earth  is  the  Lord's,  and  the  fulness  thereof.  But 
if  any  man  say.  unto  thee,  This  was  offered  to 
idols,  eat  not  for  his  sake  that  showed  it,  and  for 
*  Rom.  xiv.  4,  13.  t  1  Cor.  viii.  7. 


CONSCIENTIOUSNESS    AND    INTEGRITY.       175 

conscience  sake — conscience,  I  say,  not  thine  own 
but  his/*  That  is  a  noble  principle  which  is  con- 
tained in  the  Psalm,  '  The  earth  is  the  Lord's, 
and  the  fulness  thereof ;  'f  but  it  is  a  nobler 
principle  still,  with  which  the  Apostle  concludes 
this  context,  '  Even  as  I  please  all  men  in  all 
things,  not  seeking  mine  own  profit,  but  the  profit 
of  many,  that  they  may  be  saved/  I  doubt  if  any 
point  is  so  characteristic  of  the  Christian  morality 
as  this  principle  of  self-denial  in  indifferent  things 
for  the  sake  of  the  religious  good  of  others.  And 
here  the  remark  arises,  how  eminently  a  Religion 
with  this  distinctive  mark  suits  a  world  of  Sin.  It 
was  noticed  in  the  last  Lecture  how  a  religion 
characterised  by  the  duty  and  practice  of  tender- 
ness and  sympathy  suits  a  world  of  Sorrow. J 
Here  the  point  is,  that  a  delicate  regard  for  the 
consciences  of  others  has  upon  it  a  divine  mark  of 
fitness  for  a  scene  of  moral  disorder  and  perpetual 
temptation.     In  this  state  of  feeling  there  are  two 

*   1  Cor.  x.  25-29.  f  Ps.  xxiv.  1 ;  1.  is. 

X  See  above,  pp.  117,  118. 


J  /6  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

precious  elements,  which  in  combination  cause  it 
to  be  distinctively  Christian.  There  is  a  deep 
sense  of  the  reality  and  evil  of  sin :  and  that  is 
united  with  the  most  generous  love.  Without  the 
former  there  might  be  much  generosity,  though 
only  of  the  superficial  kind ;  without  the  latter,  a 
man  might  be  driven  by  the  terror  of  contagion  to 
lead  the  life  of  an  anchorite.  In  St.  Paul's  life 
and  teaching  the  two  are  combined. 

There  is  another  side  also  of  this  Apostle's 
honest  consideration  for  the  consciences  of  others, 
which  we  must  not  fail  to  notice.  He  was  fair 
and  candid  in  controversy.  He  readily  placed 
himself  in  the  position  of  his  opponents,  and 
made  allowance  for  their  education,  their  habits, 
and  their  prejudices.  Much  that  was  said  in  the 
first  Lecture  under  the  head  of  tact  and  adaptation 
to  circumstances,  might  here  be  repeated  under  the 
head  of  fairness  and  candour :  and  what  was  said 
of  forbearance  in  the  second  Lecture,  here  ac- 
quires a  more  serious  meaning,  and  reappears 
under     the     higher     form    of    religious    tolera- 


CONSCIENTIOUSNESS    AND    INTEGRITY.       177 

tion.*  St.  Paul  looks  out  for  common  ground  f  in 
dealing  with  antagonists.  It  may  be  the  ground  of 
Natural  Conscience  :  it  may  be  the  ground  of  the 
Jewish  Law :  but  in  either  case  he  concedes  as 
much  as  he  can,  and,  when  he  must  contend,  he 
contends  fairly.  The  credit  given  to  the  Athenians 
for  their  care  (such  as  it  was)  of  religion — the 
sympathy  with  the  uneducated  Lystrians  in  what 
they  felt  concerning  Divine  influences  regulating 

*  Niemeyer  dwells  with  great  (and  perhaps  one-sided)  satisfaction 
on  this  phase  of  St.  Paul's  character,  and  devotes  nearly  fifty  pages 
to  it  (pp.  352-400).     See  also  de  Pressense,  pp,  259-269. 

f  Dr.  Newman  notices  a  delicate  instance  of  this,  in  the  address 
to  the  Lystrians.  *  When  the  Lycaonians  would  have  worshipped 
him,  he  at  once  places  himself  on  their  level  and  reckons  himself 
amorgthem,  and  at  the  same  time  speaks  of  God's  love  to  them, 
heathens  though  they  were.  .  .  .  '  We  also  are  mortals,  men  like 
unto  you.'  .  .  .  '  God  in  times  past  left  not  himself  without  tes- 
timony, doing  good  from  heaven  .  .  .  filling  our  hearts  with  food 
and  gladness.'  You  see,  he  says  '  our  hearts, '  not  c  your,'  as  if  he 
were  one  of  those  Gentiles ;  and  he  dwells  in  a  kindly  human  way 
over  the  food,  and  the  gladness  which  food  causes,  which  the  poor 
heathen  was  granted.' — P.  113.  Here  the  received  text,  and  of 
course  the  Vulgate,  is  followed.  It  must,  however,  be  confessed 
that  the  evidence  is  strong,  in  Acts  xiv.  17,  for  i//x?v  and  vumv.  Yet 
in  an  evenly-balanced  case  of  criticism,  perhaps  a  trait  of  character 
may  go  for  something. 

N 


THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 


the  seasons — are  examples  of  the  former :  and  fo: 
illustrations  of  the  latter  I  may  refer  to  the  credit 
given  to  the  angry  Jews  in  the  Temple  for  hearty 
loyal  attachment  to  their  religion,  but  above  all  to 
his  words  in  the  Romans  :  f  I  bear  them  record  '* 
(and  these  were  his  most  bitter  enemies  against 
whom  he  was  arguing)  that  '  they  have  a  zeal  of 
God,  though  not  according  to  knowledge/  There 
is  in  St.  Paul  that  very  sure,  but  very  rare,  mark  of 
a  candid  mind,  that  he  is  not  bitter  against  the 
religious  system  which  he  has  conscientiously  left. 
Most  converts  think  that  they  can  in  no  way  show 
their  rectitude  so  well  as  in  violent  and  scornful 
words  against  their  former  communion  and  creed. 
PauPs  conversion  was  not  of  this  kind.  His 
forefathers  are  dear  to  him  still.  Prayer  in  the 
old  Temple  is  still  a  help  to  his  soul.  He  tells  the 
Jews,  indeed,  many  plain  truths;  but  still  they 
are  his  brethren.  He  far  more  gladly  excuses 
them  than  blames  them.  And  as  to  differences 
among  Christians  themselves,  he  is  far  from 
*  Rom.  x.  2. 


CONSCIENTIOUSNESS    AND    INTEGRITY.       I79 

thinking  that,  in  minor  points,  all  are  to  be 
exactly  alike.  He  is  far  from  making  laws  which 
Jesus  Christ  has  not  made.  '  Let  no  man  judge 
you  in  respect  of  a  holyday/*  '  One  man  eateth 
everything  alike,  another  eateth  herbs/f  Again, 
he  does  not  call  things  by  harsh  names.  It  is 
surprising  how  our  religious  vocabulary  varies, 
according  as  we  speak  under  the  influence  of  pas- 
sion or  of  candour.  '  Circumcision  is  nothing.  *  J 
Bowing  at  the  name  of  Jesus — using  the  sign  of 
the  cross — these  things  are  nothing.  Then  why 
insist  on  them  ?  But  { uncircumcision  is  nothing.' § 
Then  why  object  to  these  things?  How  much 
good  time  has  been  lost,  even  in  the  Church  of 
England,  by  such  foolish  disputes  !  Controversy 
is  indeed  inevitable  :  but  there  are  two  sweet 
fountains  which  can  keep  even  those  troubled 
waters  pure.  Those  fountains  were  never  dry  in 
St.  Paul's  heart.  They  are  the  love  of  truth  and 
the  love  of  man. 

Now,  in  attempting  to  make  a  practical  applica- 

*  Col.  ii.  16.          +  Rom.  xiv.  2.         J  1  Cor.  vii.  19.  §  lb. 

N    2 


l8o  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

tion  of  this  characteristic  of  St.  Paul,  I   shall  cer- 
tainly not  mention  any  present  controversy.     This 
might  do    more    harm    than    good,    and  lead   us 
away   from   the  general  principle,   which  has  its 
applications  in  very  varied    circumstances.      But 
this  I  may  venture  to  say  in  reference  to  our  own 
times,  that   we  learn  here  the  duty  of  forbear- 
ing sympathy  with   honest    doubt.       I    say    holiest 
doubt,  because  a  doubting  habit  of  mind  may  be 
created  by  a  habit  of  captious  disputation,   or  it 
may   be   the   result   of  latent  sin,   of  which  the 
seeds  were   sown  long  ago,  and  the  barren  fruit 
only   remains,  while  the  process  of  growth    has 
been  forgotten.     But  scruples  and  difficulties  are 
often  the   mark    of  a    tender   conscience,   not   a 
hardened  conscience :    and  to   treat  both   alike  is 
not  to  follow  the  footsteps  of  Him  who  dealt  very 
differently  with  the   ostentatious  scribe,  and   with 
His  own  true  disciple  St.  Thomas.      Those  who 
have  experienced  the  distress  of  religious  perplexi- 
ties in  some  of  their  phases  can  feel  for  those  in 
like  trials.     To  take  up  the  Bible  in  a  time  of 


CONSCIENTIOUSNESS    AND    INTEGRITY.       l8l 


trouble,  and  to  find  difficulties  starting  from  every 
page — thorny  questions  of  interpretation,  inspira- 
tion, authenticity  —  when  that  which  the  heart 
longs  for  is  comfort  and  repose  and  encouragement : 
— to  look  on  the  fair  face  of  Nature,  and  to  find 
every  combination  of  form  and  colour,  and  every 
process  of  organic  growth,  leading  the  mind  away 
from  God  and  down  into  the  gulf  of  Pantheism  : — 
to  look  abroad  into  society,  and  to  see  no  solution 
of  that  perplexing  spectacle  except  some  choice 
between  Manichaean  alternatives  : — to  look  within 
and  to  find  the  darkness  and  confusion  there 
darker  and  more  confused  than  in  all  the  world 
without : — to  cry  out  in  bitter  grief  with  Mary 
Magdalene — 'They  have  taken  away  my  Lord, 
and  I  know  not  where  they  have  laid  Him  :  '* — 
such  trials  it  is  possible  to  bear,  if  they  are  believed 
to  be  the  discipline  of  a  merciful  Father — and  they 
may  be  remembered  with  thankfulness,  if  they  have 
resulted  in  some  distrust  of  self,  and  some  for- 
bearance  and    sympathy   for    others.      '  Lo !    all 

*  John  xx.  2.    4 


l82  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

these  things  worketh  God  oftentimes  with  man, 
to  bring  back  his  soul  from  the  pit,  to  be  enlight- 
ened with  the  light  of  the  living/* 

But  if  St.  PauPs  character  inculcates  the  duty 
of  sympathy  with  a  troubled  and  doubting  con- 
science, what  are  we  to  say  of  those  who  suggest 
doubt  ?  When  books  are  published  under  cir- 
cumstances which  necessarily  throw  the  most 
difficult  and  delicate  questions  into  the  most  in- 
competent handsf — when  hints  are  given  casually 

*  Job  xxxiii  29,  30.  In  a  complete  picture  of  the  character  of 
St.  Paul  it  would  be  necessary  to  find  a  place  for  his  sympathy 
with  the  consciences  of  others  through  the  fact  of  having  passed 
through  conflict  himself.  Not  only  had  he  gone  through  one  great 
mental  crisis,  but  he  had  probably  had  prolonged  struggles  for 
many  years.  These  were  chiefly  struggles  against  the  Law,  and 
efforts  to  obtain  peace  through  fulfilling  the  Law.  The  bearing  of 
this  on  his  free  announcement  afterwards  of  Justification  by  Faith 
is  evidently  very  important ;  and,  as  might  be  expected,  is  made 
very  prominent,  and  admirably  treated  by  divines  from  Luther's 
country.  Among  these  Stier  and  Besser  have  a  high  place.  Besides 
this,  there  is  the  battle  with  sin  even  after  justification.  No  one  can 
read  Rom.  vii.  without  feeling  how  largely  the  Apostle  had  had  ex- 
perience of  the  difficulty  as  well  as  the  victory. 

f  If  the  reference  to  one  publication,  which  made  much  noise 
about  the  time  of  the  preaching  of  these  sermons,  is  omitted  in 


CONSCIENTIOUSNESS    AND    INTEGRITY.       183 

and  by  the  way,  such  as,  if  accepted,  must  in* 
evitably  lead  to  the  most  momentous  consequences 
— when  clever  conversation,  in  light  and  flippant 
tone,  drops  poison  into  the  minds  of  the  unwary 
and  the  anxious — when  we  think  of  these  things 
in  silence,  we  seem  to  hear  a  voice  more  solemn, 
more  remote,  more  awful,  more  tender,  than  that 
of  Paul  :  f  Woe  unto  the  world  because  of 
offences !  '* 

Nor  is  it  only  within  the  sphere  of  religious 
belief  that  these  offences  or  stumbling-blocks  of 
the  soul  are  found.  They  are  still  more  abun- 
dant on  the  road  of  our  ordinary  practice — and 
there,  on  the  paths  where  our  brethren  walk  in 
daily  life,  any  of  us  may  place  those  stumbling- 
blocks,  by  inconsistency  or  by  thoughtlessness.  I 
am  not  speaking  here  of  anything  avowedly  sin- 
ful, but  of  such  things  as  are  made  right  or  wrong 
by  circumstances.  How  serious,  for  instance,  is 
the  whole  question  of  public   amusements  when 

this  third  edition,  this  is  not  because  of  any  change  of  opinion,  but 
because  the  bad  example  has  been  frequently  followed  since. 
*  Matt,  xviii.  7. 


184  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

seen  from  this  point  of  view  !  *  This  is  not  the 
place  for  definitions;  and  no  definitions  are  in- 
tended. St.  Paul  always  carries  such  details  up  to 
general  principles. — How  will  my  conduct  probably 
affect  others  ? — This  question  is  ever  present  to 
the  true  Christian  heart.  And  the  question,  as 
regards  the  intercourse  of  daily  life,  is  nowhere 
more  important  than  here.  Everywhere  our  in- 
sensible mutual  influence  on  each  other  is  greater 
than  we  imagine.     But  here,  perhaps,  among  the 

*  Thus  much,  however,  may  fairly  be  said,  that  when  Vice  has 
laid  hold  of  any  amusement,  and,  as  it  were,  specially  appropriated 
it  then  those  who  really  wish  to  serve  Christ  are  bound  very 
seriously  to  consider  whether  they  should  associate  themselves  with 
it.  The  question  is  often  asked  :  '  What  harm  in  this  ?  '  and  it  is 
often  very  difficult  to  answer.  But,  after  all,  this  is  not  the  true 
Christian  question.  The  servant  of  Jesus  Christ  will  rather  ask  : 
'  How  can  I  most  effectually  honour  my  Master  and  promote  His 
cause  ? '  and  the  answer  to  that  question  is  not  commonly,  in  cases 
of  this  kind,  very  hard. 

The  same  remark  may  be  extended  to  another  debated  subject, 
viz.  the  observance  of  Sunday.  Theoretically,  this  is  a  subject  of 
gieat  difficulty;  but  practically,  if  a  man,  according  to  the  circum- 
stances in  which  he  is  placed,  simply  considers  the  welfare  of  the 
souls  of  others,  and  seeks  to  learn  not  what  is  ivro)ig,  but  what  is 
lest,  the  perplexity  often  disappears  in  a  moment. 


CONSCIENTIOUSNESS    AND    INTEGRITY.       185 

younger  members  of  the  University,  it  is  at  its 
culminating  point.  Oh  !  do  not  live  together  in 
close  and  free  companionship  without  remember- 
ing, each  for  the  other,  that  he  has  a  soul  to  be 
saved,  and  that  you  may  have  much  to  do  with  its 
ultimate  destiny.  And  if  for  his  sake  you  do  give 
up  something  which  would  cause  you  pleasure, 
and  which  in  itself  would  be  innocent,  is  it  not 
worth  while  to  obtain  such  a  proof  of  the  reality 
of  your  religion  ?  And  will  you  say  that  such  a 
life  is  mean,  spiritless,  and  full  of  perpetual 
anxiety  ?  Nay ;  but  I  have  not  said  that  we  are 
bound  to  calculate  all  the  consequences  of  all  our 
actions.  The  Christian  knows  God's  promises, 
and  he  leaves  the  results  to  Him.  And  surely  it 
cannot  be  mean  and  spiritless  thus  to  carry  about 
with  us  everywhere  the  thought  of  our  brethren's 
salvation.  Rather  it  is  a  noble  and  honourable 
task.  No  one  could  propose  to  himself  one 
nobler  or  more  honourable,  whether  it  be  a  man 
of  wealth  and  influence,  who  uses  his  power  in 
removing  the  occasions  of  moral  evil — or  a  man 


l86  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

of  high  intellectual  gifts,  who  spends  his  strength 
in  circulating  truth  and  refuting  error — or  a  young 
man  of  no  eminence,  who  gently  strengthens  the 
infirmity  of  his  friend — or  a  poor  labourer,  work- 
ing for  daily  wages,  who  breaks  up  the  stumbling- 
blocks  which  he  sees  around  him,  and  mends  the 
road  of  his  neighbours  to  heaven. 

This  train  of  thought,  into  which  we  have 
fallen  in  conclusion,  especially  if  we  allow  it  to 
blend  with  that  other  train  of  thought  which  we 
pursued  last  Sunday*  in  regard  to  the  tenderness 
and  sympathy  of  St.  Paul,  leads  us,  I  think,  to  the 
conviction,  that  we  have  in  him  a  different  ideal  of 
Christian  virtue  from  that  which  tends  to  be 
popular  now.  A  certain  manly,  unconscious, 
somewhat  careless,  self-reliance  appears  often  to 
be  held  before  us  as  the  highest  pattern  of 
Christian  life.  I  find  no  trace  of  anything  in  St. 
Paul  which  recommends  this  theory  to  our  ac- 
ceptance. And  do  you  really  find  sanction  for  it 
anywhere   in  any  part  of   the  New  Testament? 

*  Lect.  II.     See  pp.  86,  87,  134. 


CONSCIENTIOUSNESS    AND    INTEGRITY.       187 

What  we  learn  there  is,  that  the  strength  and 
sinew  of  Christianity  is  to  be  found  in  the  broken 
and  contrite  heart,  in  the  self-examining,  self-dis- 
trusting, self-denying  habit  of  mind,  in  sensitive 
thoughtfulness  of  others,  and  the  conscious  weak- 
ness, which  looks  elsewhere  for  guidance  in  the 
path  of  duty,  and  for  strength  to  follow  it.  I  said 
that  Paul's  religion  was  the  religion  of  the 
Beatitudes.*  The  Gospels  and  the  Epistles  are 
in  deepest  harmony.  The  character  of  Paul  is 
that  which  Jesus  blessed  in  His  disciples  :  '  Blessed 
are  the  poor  in  spirit :  blessed  are  the  merciful ; 
blessed  are  the  peacemakers.'f  That  poverty  is 
rich  in  sympathy  with  the  tempted — no  mercy 
like  that  which  deals  tenderly  and  faithfully  with 
conscience  —  no  peacemaking  like  that  which 
promotes  reconciliation  with  God. 

And  to  end  with  that  with  which  this  Sermon 

began — the    Christian    aatcr]ai^.        Paul    says    of 

this    (and    most  young    Englishmen    in   this  day 

can  enter  into  the  spirit  of  his   allegory) — f  bodily 

*  See  Lecture  II.  p.  134.  f  Matt.  v.  3,  7,  9. 


100  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

exercise '  —  the  bodily  training  for  those  famous 
games,*  '  proflteth  little/f  Its  reward  is  only  the 
glow  of  a  more  lively  health  and  vigour — a  short 
struggle — a  shout  of  victory — a  crown  of  green 
leaves — and  a  name  that  will  be  forgotten.  But 
'godliness' — the  training  of  the  whole  man  for 
the  Christian  course — fhath  the  promise  of  the 
life  which  is  to  come,  as  well  as}  of  that  which  now 
is/  But  victory  cannot  be  without  training.  The 
candidate  is  '  not  crowned/  except  he  strive 
1  according  to  the  rules/§     The  formation  of   a 

*  I  am  quite  aware  that  many  good  commentators  understand 
awfj-TtK^i  yvfj.va.crla,  here  to  denote  certain  outward  religious  obser- 
vances as  opposed  to  inward  spiritual  feelings ;  but  I  am  persuaded 
that  this  is  an  error,  and  I  think  it  may  sometimes  have  arisen  from 
the  same  spirit  of  controversy  which  has  led  some  to  forget  the  law 
of  the  Greek  article  in  Heb.  xiii.  4.  The  whole  drift  of  the  passage, 
the  analogy  of  St.  Paul's  illustrative  language  (as  for  instance  in  z 
Cor.  iii.  3),  and  the  yvfivafc  creavTov  in  the  preceding  verse,  which 
introduces  the  metaphor  in  this  case,  seem  to  me  quite  decisive.  See 
'The  Metaphors  of  St.  Paul,'  p.  144. 

f  1  Tim.  iv.  8. 

X  Here  again  I  venture  to  think  that  the  stress  is  very  commonly 
laid  on  the  wrong  point.  So  in  1  Tim.  vi.  17  the  emphasis  is  often 
laid,  in  defiance  of  the  context,  not  on  the  Giver  but  on  the  en- 
joyment. 

§  2  Tim.  ii.  5,     Soij.ifA.us. 


CONSCIENTIOUSNESS    AND    INTEGRITY.       189 

Christian  character  without  self-discipline  is  im- 
possible. No  doubt  the  highest  form  of  virtue 
is  spontaneous  habit.  But  who  will  dare  to  say 
that  his  good  habits  are  built  up  ?  Happy  is  he 
who  has  a  comfortable  assurance  that  his  bad 
habits  are  tottering  to  their  fall.  Never  was 
Christianity,  in  any  of  its  phases  of  which  we 
have  yet  had  experience,  really  efficient  without 
the  presence  of  an  ascetic  element.*  Beware,  my 
brethren,  of  counterfeits;  Christ  must  be  crucified 
in  His  members.    Sin  will  never  die  out  naturally. f 

*  There  seems  to  me  ground  for  very  serious  regret  that  the  word 
'asceticism'  has  not  retained  with  us,  as  it  has  in  Germany,  its  old 
signification  of  practical  Christian  self-discipline.  The  history  of 
the  deterioration  of  this  word,  the  false  impression  associated  w;th  it 
by  our  self-indulgent  Christianity,  and  its  injurious  reaction  on  that 
Christianity  afterwards,  might  form  a  useful  section  in  one  of  Arch- 
bishop Trench's  instructive  books.  In  arguing  once  on  this  sub- 
ject with  a  clergyman  (a  thoughtful  and  well-educated  man),  I  found 
that  his  opinion  was  largely  influenced  by  his  impression  that  ascetic 
was  derived  from  ace  turn. 

f  The  two  French  Protestant  writers,  from  whom  I  have  quoted 
so  much,  are  quite  in  harmony  with  what  I  have  said  here.  '  La 
croix  pour  la  croix,  jamais  :  mais  la  croix  pour  le  Seigneur,  tou- 
jours  ;  car  on  ne  saurait  accepter  le  crucifie  sans  la  croix  qu'en  pre- 
nant  l'ombre  pour  la  realite  :  christia?iismc  sa?is  croix,  christianisme 


I9O  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

There  comes  back  here  on  my  memory  the  use 
once  made  of  a  legendary  story.  It  is  the  echo  of 
the  voice  of  one  whose  teaching  in  the  Sister 
University  led  to  disaster,  though  his  spiritual  in- 
sight and  searching  analysis  caused  many  hearts  to 
know  themselves  better  than  before.  Would  that 
in  this  poor  world  we  could  have  the  gold  without 
the  dross  1  The  story  is  this  : — To  a  saint  who 
was   praying,    the    Evil    Spirit    showed-  himself 

sa?is  Christ.  Mais  qu'avez-vous  done  fait,  je  le  demande  a  cette 
generation  si  amie  du  bien-etre  et  si  ennemie  de  la  souffrance, 
qu'avez-vous  done  fait  de  cette  parole  du  Mattre  (Luc.  xiv.  27)  ? 
Votre  Croix  !  avant  de  la  charger,  il  taut  la  voir ;  montrez-la  moi  ; 
ou  est-elle  ?  ' — A.  Monod,  p.  i  75.  *  Avant  d'etre  a,  Jesus-Christ 
nous  sommes  au  monde,  au  peche,  a,  nous-memes  ;  il  faut  done 
mourir  a  tout  ce  qui  n'est  pas  lui,  afin  de  revivre  a  lui.  La  morti- 
fication est  la  condition  premiere  de  toute  sanctification  serieuse  .  .  . 
La  crise  si  douloureuse  de  Damas  a  ete  pour  Paul  le  prelude  d'une 
lutte  prolongee,  d'un  opiniatre  combat  contre  lui-meme  renouvele 
tous  les  jours  .  .  .  Paul  a  pousse  cette  mortification  du  corpsjusqu'a 
l'ascetisme  (1  Cor.  ix.  27).  Cette  austerite  n'a  aucun  rapport  avec 
cet  ascetisme  oriental  qui  repose  sur  l'idee  que  le  mal  est  inherent  a 
la  matiere,  et  que  le  corps  doit  etre  detruit  .  .  .  Et  pourtant 
l'ascetisme  de  Paul  fut  reel  .  .  .  Quand  on  a,  comme  lui,  soif  de 
saintete,  on  n'hesite  pas  a,  traiter  durement  sons  corps  ;  on  lui  refuse 
souvent  des  satisfactions  qui  sont  legitimes  en  elles-memes,  afin  de 
constater  sa  defaite  et  de  le  maintenir  asservi ;  on  rcsserre  d'autant 


CONSCIENTIOUSNESS    AND    INTEGRITY.       I9I 

radiant  with  royal  robes,  and  crowned  with  a 
jewelled  diadem,  and  said,  '  I  am  Christ — I  am 
descending  on  the  earth — and  I  desired  first  to 
manifest  myself  to  thee/  The  saint  kept  silence 
and  looked,  and  then  said,  '  I  will  not  believe  that 
Christ  is  come,  save  in  that  state  and  form  in 
which  He  suffered,   save   with  the  marks   of  the 

plus  sa  chafne,  que  Ton  vit  dans  une  epoque  de  civilisation  raffinee, 
oii  tout  est  calcule  pour  le  bien-etre  et  le  luxe  .  .  .  Unchristianisme 
sans  austirite  est  un  christianisme  sans  grandeur  et  sans  puissance.'* 
— De  Pressense,  pp.  339-344. 

What  has  been  truly  said  by  Archbishop  Whately  in  his  '  Essay 
on  Self-Denial'  ('  Difficulties  in  the  Writings  of  St.  Paul,'  x),  will 
be  onesided  and  incomplete,  unless  it  is  combined  with  such  other 
practical  truths  as  those  which  are  here  stated.  See,  for  instance,  p. 
270.  'The  danger  is  so  palpable,  of  giving  way  to  intemperance  or 
to  luxurious  self-indulgence,  that  many  are  apt  to  disbelieve  or  over- 
look all  danger  on  the  side  of  asceticism,  and  to  consider  that  as 
being,  at  the  worst,  no  more  than  a  harmless  error,  leading  to  no 
evil  beyond  the  unnecessary  bodily  suffering  undergone  : — as  some- 
thing superfluous,  but  nowise  mischievous.  But,  in  truth,  nothing 
is  harmless  that  is  mistaken  for  a  virtue.'  As  to  what  is  said  just 
below  of  the  '  strong  tendency  of  asceticism  to  generate  spiritual 
pride,  uncharitable  harshness  towards  opponents,  and  a  general 
laxity  of  conscience  in  points  not  immediately  connected  with  ascetic 
observances,'  we  certainly  observe  no  such  results  in  St.  Paul :  and 
probably  he  was  quite  as  ascetic  (in  the  true  sense)  after  his  con- 
version as  before  it. 


19^  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

wounds  of  the  Cross ; '  and  the  false  apparition 
vanished.  The  application  is  this  :  —  '  Christ 
comes  not  in  pride  of  intellect,  or  reputation  for 
ability.  These  are  the  glittering  robes  in  which 
Satan  is  now  arraying.  Many  spirits  are  abroad, 
more  are  issuing  from  the  pit :  the  credentials 
which  they  display  are  the  precious  gifts  of  mind, 
beauty,  richness,  depth,  originality.  Christian, 
look  hard  at  them  with  the  saint  in  silence — and 
then  ask  for  the  print  of  the  nails.* 

*  'The  Church  of  the  Fathers '  (1840),  pp. 413,  414. 


LECTURE  IV. 
THANKSGIVING  AND  PRAYER. 


Ppsmissa  laude,  invocatio  sequi  solet.     Exaudit  quippe  Dominus 

invocantem,  quern  laudantera  videt Omnes  sancti  in  tri- 

bulationibus  constituti  prius  justitiam  Ejus  laudaverunt  et  sic  bene- 
ficia  petiverunt.  .  .  .  Tunc  eris  rectus,  quum  fn  omnibus  bonis 
quae  facit  Deus  tibi  placet,  in  omnibus  malis  quae  pateris  Deus  tibi 
non  displicet.  Hoc  est  invocare  Deum  in  veritate.  Qui  sic  invo- 
cant  exaudit  eos. 

Augustine. 


IV. 

THANKSGIVING  AND  PRAYER. 

"I  thank  my  God,  making  mention  of  thee  always  in  my  prayers" — Pxiilem.  &, 

The  New  Testament  might  almost  be  described 
as  composed  of  two  biographies.  The  fourfold  life 
of  our  Lord  and  Saviour,  with  the  addition  of 
what  we  are  taught  concerning  St.  Paul  from  the 
Acts  and  thirteen  Epistles,*  fills  up  considerably 
more  than  three-fourths  of  the  volume.  These 
two  lives  have  been  compared  and  contrasted, 
sometimes  in  a  perverse  spirit,  and  with  results  (so 

*  The  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  has  not  been  used  in  any  argu- 
mentative part  of  these  Lectures.  I  am  far,  however,  from  assert- 
ing positively  that  it  was  not  written  by  St.  Paul.  Wherever  the 
Apostle's  characteristic  metaphors  can  be  traced  in  this  Epistle  (as  in 
xii.  \,  4,  n),  or  wherever  we  can  see  in  it  strong  references  to  con- 
science  (see  xiii.  18),  or  incidental  expressions  of  personal  sympathy 
(see  lb.  23),  there  we  have  a  reasonable  argument  in  favour  of 
Pauline  authorship. 

O   2 


ig6  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 


far  as  there  have  been  any  results)  mischievous 
and  deluding.  But  the  comparison  and  contrast, 
if  conducted  reverently  and  truthfully,  are  in- 
structive and  useful.  For  in  the  point  and 
the  mode  of  the  contact  of  these  two  bio- 
graphies is  seen  the  whole  significance  of  Christi- 
anity. 

This  thought  may  be  best  unfolded  by  means  of 
a  few  illustrations.  It  is  generally  in  points  of 
detail  that  resemblances  and  distinctions  of  cha- 
racter are  most  easily  perceived.  We  sometimes 
see  Paul  and  Jesus  in  similar  situations.  Nay, 
possibly,  sometimes  we  can  discern  similarities  of 
manner.  Both  stood  before  the  High  Priest,  both 
were  smitten  and  insulted ;  and  (without  entering 
further  into  the  comparison,  from  which  a  believer 
in  the  Atonement  instinctively  shrinks)  how  great 
is  the  contrast  between  the  human  indignation 
which  we  excuse  and  the  Divine  submission  which 
we  adore  !  Each  contended  with  the  alternate 
enmity  of  Pharisees  and  Sadducees ;  and  each 
baffled    by    the    exercise    of    wisdom    both    those 


THANKSGIVING    AND    PRAYER.  I97 

classes  of  enemies.  But  how  different  is  the 
impression  produced  by  St.  Paul's  adroitness  in 
the  scene  considered  in  the  first  of  these  Lectures, 
from  the  calm  but  irresistible  rebukes  in  the 
Gospels — e  Show  me  the  tribute  money  '  * — (  Ye 
do  err,  not  knowing  the  Scriptures '  f  — -  (  And 
no  man  after  that  durst  ask  Him  any  question. ';£ 
Paul  and  Jesus  are  each  of  them  presented  to  our 
notice  in  a  storm  at  sea.  In  the  one  case  the 
scene  is  connected  with  the  little  lake  of  Galilee 
and  a  common  fishing-boat;  in  the  other  with  the 
great  Mediterranean,  with  a  gale  of  a  fortnight's 
duration,  and  a  ship  with  two  hundred  and 
seventy-six  souls  on  board  ;  but  how  the  grandeur 
is  inverted  when  we  compare  the  two  characters  ! 
In  Paul,  indeed,  is  that  serene  faith  and  practical 
wisdom,  which  a  Christian  ought  to  desire  to 
possess  in  the  presence  of  danger.  But  he  is 
only  so  far  strong  in  the  midst  of  the  rage  of  the 
elements,  as  a  Higher  Power  enables  him  to  be 
so.     Jesus  is  Master  of  the  elements  themselves. 

*  Matt.  xxii.  19.  f  lb.  29.  +  Mark  xii.  34. 


I90  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

St.  Paul  and  St.  Luke  were  evidently  wakeful  on 
that  anxious  night  which  preceded  the  loss  of  the 
vessel  and  the  saving  of  the  crew ;  but  of  Jesus 
we  read  in  all  three  Evangelists  (it  is  a  most  signi- 
ficant expression)  that  —  in  the  storm — He  was 
'  asleep/*  We  might  pursue  the  comparison 
through  a  variety  of  incidents.  We  read  that 
Paul  '  set  his  eyes'  on  Elymas  the  sorcerer, f  and 
'  beheld '  the  Sanhedrim  ;  J  we  read,  too,  that 
Jesus  '  looked  round  upon  them  all/  §  and  '  be- 
held '  them,  when  He  spake  to  them.||  But  who 
does  not  feel  the  difference  between  the  brave 
and  steady  look  of  the  servant  strong  in  his 
Master's  commission,  and  that  look — tender,  yet 
terrible — of  the  Master  Himself,  who  penetrates 
all  our  disguises,  and  c  knows  what  is  in  man  ? '  ** 
I  need  not  speak  of  differences  in  the  style  of 
addressing  disciples — differences  in  the  mode  of 
working  miracles — differences  in  the  utterance  of 
prayer.      In  the   prayer  of  Jesus,  as  recorded  by 

*  Matt.  viii.  24 ;  Mark  iv.  38  ;  Luke  viii.  23.         f  Acts  xiii.  9. 
X  Acts  xxiii.  1.     §  Luke  vi.  10.     ||  Mark  x.  21.     **  John  ii.  25. 


THANKSGIVING   AND    PRAYER.  I99 

St.  John,  is  there  not  a  certain  awful  unapproached 
sublimity,  quite  different  from  anything  we  find 
in  St.  Paul's  supplications  ?*  I  think  we  might 
also  give  definiteness  to  our  instinctive  feeling 
on  this  subject  by  comparing  the  imagery  of  the 
Gospels  and  Epistles.  Thus  I  can  hardly  imagine 
Paul  saying  to  his  listeners  :  c  Consider  the  lilies  of 
the  field/  In  the  simplicity  of  the  parables  there 
is  a  Divine  mark  which  cannot  well  be  mistaken,  f 
It  is  in  the  expression  of  sympathy  that  the  Master 
and  the  servant  are  most  nearly  alike.  And  yet 
there  is  a  difference.  It  may  be  a  fancy;  but  I 
do  not  see  in  the  Apostle  any  trace  of  that  love 
of  young  children,  which  distinguishes  the 
Saviour.  Paul  does  indeed  most  affectionately 
remind  children  of  their  duties  to  their  parents, J  he 
recalls  Timothy  to  the  recollection  of  his  mother's 
early  teaching  :§  but  I  find   no  scene  in  the  Acts 

#  John  xvii. 

f  See  the  remarks  in  Lecture  I.  on  the  characteristic  imagery  0/ 
St.  Paul  as  contrasted  with  that  of  St.  James.     P.  8. 

t  Eph.   vi.   1  ;    Col.  iii.  20. 

§  1  Tim.  v.  4 ;  2  Tim.  i.  5.  We  must  remember,  too, 
the  blessed  mother  of  Jesus  and  the  Cross.  It  may  be  that 
when  St.  Paul  reminds    Timothy  of  Lois    and   Eunice    (2  Tim. 


200     THE  CHARACTER  OF  ST  PAUL. 

and  Epistles  like  that — associated  in  our  own  case 
with  the  moment  when  Christ's  blessing  first  came 
to  us — the  scene  in  which  the  Saviour  f  took  the 
children  into  His  arms,  put  His  hands  upon  them, 
and  blessed  them/  No,  my  brethren,  there  is 
something  in  Jesus  which  we  never  see  in  Paul. 
No  position  in  theology  seems  to  me  so  untenable 
as  that,  which  accepts  in  the  New  Testament  a 
Divine  Revelation,  and  yet  degrades  Jesus  Christ 
to  a  mere  human  teacher  and  reformer.  No.  The 
Redeemer  of  the  world  is  infinitely  removed  above 
the  highest  of  His  Apostles.* 

i.  5),  he  is  thinking  of  his  own  early  days  and  his  own  parents 
But  on  the  whole  his  silence  regarding  his  family  is  remark- 
able. In  the  mention  of  his  relations  (Rom.  xvi.  7,  n,  21), 
and  of  his  nephew  (Acts  xxiii.  16),  there  is  no  impression  of 
peculiar  warmth.  And  this  is  the  more  observable,  if  we  consider 
the  intense  affection  shown  to  friends.  In  Paul  the  character  is  not 
domestic.  I  have  heard  it  said— and  from  the  same  source  I  have 
borrowed  the  remark  just  made  about  the  '  lilies  of  the  field ' — 
'  Put  '  the  Love  of  Christ '  in  the  place  of  '  the  Society  of  Jesus,' 
and  you  might  say  that  there  is  much  of  the  Jesuit  in  St.  Paul.' 
This  is  a  startling  way  of  stating  the  matter ;  but,  if  it  is  an  exag- 
geration, it  is  the  exaggeration  of  a  truth. 

*  The  juxtaposition  of  the  names  of  the  Apostle  and  his  Master 
leads  me  to  mention  a  forgotten  book,  entitled  '  Not  Paul  but  Jesus,* 


THANKSGIVING    AND    PRAYER.  201 

But  now,  though  these  two  biographies  are  so 
widely  contrasted,  yet  are  they  indissolubly  con- 
nected. Though  the  interval  is  immense,  the 
contact  is  the  closest  that  is  possible.  And  here- 
in— in  the  reality  and  the  mode  of  this  contact — 
is  seen,  as  I  have  said,  the  whole  significance  of 
Christianity.  The  one  life  is  in  absolute  and 
entire  dependence  on  the  other.      e  I  live ;  yet  not 

published  in  1823,  by  a  writer  who  calls  himself  '  Gamaliel  Smith, 
Esq.'  It  is  a  rambling  and  disconnected  production,  and  in  parts 
very  coarse  and  profane ;  but  it  is  not  without  cleverness  and  in- 
genuity ;  and  the  criticism  of  the  three  accounts  of  St.  Paul's  con- 
version (pp.  1-68)  might  have  supplied  some  useful  illustrations  to 
the  first  of  these  Lectures.  The  drift  of  the  book  is  to  show  that 
Paul,  from  interested  motives,  from  ambition  and  the  love  of  money, 
came  to  the  sudden  conclusion  that  his  best  course  was  to  declare 
himself  a  convert ;  and  that  he  ultimately  succeeded  in  corrupting 
the  pure  and  beneficent  religion  of  Jesus  by  inconsistent  additions 
of  his  own.  It  is  curious  to  see  so  much  perverseness  continued 
through  four  hundred  pages.  But  books  written  in  a  similar  spirit 
in  our  own  day  may  in  a  few  years  be  similarly  forgotten.  One  of 
the  answers  to  this  book  is  curious.  The  writer  devotes  a  large 
space  to  proving  that  St.  Paul  did  not  teach  the  doctrines  which 
4  Gamaliel  Smith  '  and  ordinary  Christians  alike  believe  to  have 
been  taught  by  the  Apostle — the  doctrines,  for  instance,  of  the 
Divinity  of  Christ,  the  propitiatory  character  of  His  death,  justifica- 
tion by  faith,  and  the  depravity  of    man  (ch.  xi.),  which  '  Ben 


202  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

I,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me :  and  the  life  which  I 
now  live  in  the  flesh  I  live  by  the  faith  of  the  Son 
of  God,  who  loved  me,  and  gave  Himself  for  me/* 
Did  it  ever  occur  to  you  to  count  the  number  of 
times  in  St.  PauPs  Epistles  in  which  the  phrase 
f  in  Christ/  and  its  equivalents,  '  in  Him/  '  in  the 
Lord/  are  to  be  found  ?  If  not,  the  result  might 
surprise  you.  St.  PauPs  life  was  not  a  life  of  what 
we  call  manly  self-reliance :  but,  as  I  said  in 
closing  last  Sunday's  discourse^  it  was  a  life  of 
conscious  weakness.  And  this  weakness  takes 
habitually  the  forms  of  prayer  and  thanksgiving — 

David  '  regards  as  not  only  '  derogatory  to  the  Almighty/  but  '  un- 
friendly to  the  improvement  of  mankind.'  And  all  this  is  com- 
bined with  a  reception  of  St.  Luke's  narrative  in  the  Acts,  with  a 
literal  belief  in  St.  Paul's  miraculous  conversion  and  our  Lord's  resur- 
rection, and  even  with  the  belief  that  this  last  event  was  predicted 
in  the  Old  Testament.  Thus  doctrines  and  moral  truths  are  ex- 
plained away,  while  n  iracles  and  narratives  are  accepted.  A  com- 
mon tendency  now  is  to  accept  doctrinal  and  moral  truths,  while 
miracles  are  explained  away,  and  narratives  resolved  into  myths. 
We  are  not  without  encouragement  to  hope  that  in  due  time  one 
method  may  become  as  obsolete  as  the  other. 

*  Gal.  ii.  2.0. 

f  See  p.  186. 


THANKSGIVING    AND    PRAYER.  2O3 

each  implying,  though  in  different  accents,  that 
what  he  had  did  not  come  from  himself — each 
again  interchanging  and  alternating  with,  and 
growing  out  of,  the  other.  Now  in  this  we  have 
clearly  a  religious  characteristic.  Here  we  are 
within  the  domain  of  what  is  purely  spiritual.  In 
following  the  subject  hitherto,  I  have  not  been 
careful  to  draw  the  line  between  the  natural  and 
the  religious  features  of  the  Apostle's  character. 
But  if  I  began  with  one  which  was  «for  the  most 
part  natural,  now,  in  this  concluding  Sermon,* 
we  have  one  before  us  which  is  distinctively 
Christian. 

'  Praying  always  with  thanksgiving.'  This,  his 
own  precept,  given  on  various  occasions  in  almost 
identical  words,  is  reflected  in  his  practice.  The 
words  might  almost  be  called  a  characteristic 
formula  both  of  his  Epistles  and  his  Life.  His 
letters,  with  scarcely  one  exception,  are  alike    in 

*  This  was  the  last  of  the  series  of  four  Sermons  preached  in 
October,  1862.  The  subject  was  resumed  after  some  months.  See 
the  Preface. 


204  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

this  respect,  that  they  open  with  this  combination 
of  thanksgiving  and  prayer;  and  yet  (let  me  add) 
with  such  differences  in  detail,  as  to  exclude  the 
theory  of  imitative  fabrication.  It  is  true  that  this 
combination  is  a  characteristic  of  Christianity 
itself,  and  is  to  be  traced  in  other  Epistles,*  as 
also  in  the  Psalms;  but  still  it  is  so  personally 
and  individually  conspicuous  in  St.  Paul,  that  it 
may  be  fairly  treated  as  one  of  his  distin- 
guishing marks,  in  contrast  with  anything 
which  is  recorded  of  St.  Peter,  St.  James,  or 
St.  John. 

As  to  the  precept,  let  me  simply  quote  as  speci- 
mens, this  from  one  Epistle  :  —  '  Continue  in 
prayer  and  watch  in  the  same  with  thanksgiving  :'f 
— this  from  a  second  : — '  In  everything  by  prayer 
and  supplication,  with  thanksgiving,  let  your 
requests  be  made  known  to  God  :  *  J — this  from  a 
third:  — '  Pray    without    ceasing:    in    everything 

*  See,  foi  instance,  St.  James  v.  13.  '  Is  any  among  you  afflicted 
let  him  pray.     Is  any  merry  ?  let  him  si?ig psaims.' 
f  Col.  iv.  2.     %  Phil.  iv.  6. 


THANKSGIVING    AND    PRAYER.  205 

give  thanks '  *  (in  two  contiguous  clauses)  : — this 
from  a  fourth :  '  Continuing  instant  in  prayer, 
rejoicing  in  hope '  j-  (in  two  almost  contiguous 
clauses)  : — and  again,  to  return  to  that  Epistle 
which  I  quoted  first — after  a  series  of  loving  in- 
junctions— the  expressive  addition — c  and  be  ye 
thankful ;'%  and  immediately  again,  before  pass- 
ing to  other  injunctions,  'Whatsoever  ye  do  in 
word  or  deed,  do  all  in  the  name  of  the  Lord 
Jesus,  giving  thajiks  to  God  and  the  Father  by 
Him/§ 

And  now  as  to  these  introductory  portions  of  St. 
Paul's  Epistles,  viewed  as  illustrative  of  his 
practice :  I  might  make  some  use  of  that  form  of 
salutation — '  grace  and  peace' — that  union  of 
Hebrew  and  Greek  elements,  of  Asiatic  repose 
and  European  alacrity  —  for  even  there  we  have 
an  expression  of  both  thanksgiving  and  prayer. 
But  to  turn  to  what  follows  this  eucharistic  salu- 
tation. The  opening  of  the  short  Epistle  to  Phile- 
mon presents  in  the  text  a  good  and  characteristic 
*  i  Thess.  v.  17,  18.      f  Rom.  xii.  12.      J  Col.  iii.  15.     §  lb.  17. 


206  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

specimen  of  what  I  mean.  '  I  thank  my  God, 
making  mention  of  thee  always  in  my  prayers.' 
And  then  there  follow  the  subjects  of  the  prayer 
and  the  thanksgiving.  He  thanks  God  because 
he  has  heard  of  Philemon's  ( faith  and  love : '  he 
prays  that  that  faith  may  become  c  effectual '  by 
the  '  acknowledging '  of  the  blessings  which  come 
from  Christ.*  In  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  after 
a  longer  preamble,  as  is  suitable  and  proportional 
to  the  larger  matter  of  the  Epistle,  we  have  prayer 
and  thanksgiving  similarly  blended — thanks  be- 
cause the  'faith*  of  the  Roman  Church  is 
'  spoken  of  throughout  the  world  '-f — prayer  that 
he  himself,  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  may  have 
a  '  prosperous  journey'  to  them,  that  he,  too, 
may  impart  to  them  '  some  spiritual  gift/ J  So,  in 
writing  to  the  Philippians  (with  that  expression  of 
confidence  and  satisfaction  which  characterises  the 
whole  communication^  and  with  that  close  allu- 

*  Philem.  4,  6.  f  Rom.  8.  X  lb.  10,  11. 

§  The  eucharistic  tone  of  this  Epistle  is  very  remarkable.      See, 
for  instance,  i.  6,  7  ;  ii.  z  j  iv.  4,  T2.     It  is  noticed  below  (p.  zzitn. 


THANKSGIVING   AND    PRAYER.  20J 

sion  to  himself  and  his  own  circumstances  which 
he  knew  would  be  welcome  to  them),  '  I  thank 
my  God  upon  every  remembrance  of  you,  always 
in  every  pray 67'  of  mine  making  request  with  joy/* 
He  tkanks  God  for  their  '  fellowship  in  the  Gos- 
pel '  from  the  day  when  he  came  as  the  first 
missionary  from  Asia;  and  he  prays  that  ' their 
love  may  abound  more  and  more  in  knowledge 
and  all  judgment.' t  Thus  again,  in  the  Second 
Epistle  to  Timothy  (though  here  personal  friend- 
ship is  the  predominant  feeling),  he  thanks  God 
that  e  without  ceasing  he  has  remembrance  of  him 

that  the  same  thing  may  be  said  of  the  Book  of  the  Acts.  And  it 
would  be  interesting  if  the  Epistle  could  be  shown  to  be  associated  with 
St.  Luke.  A  letter  addressed  even  partially  to  him  by  St.  Paul  might 
be  expected  to  partake  of  the  prevalent  spirit  which  pervades  St. 
Luke's  biography  of  the  Apostle.  Now  the  Evangelist  was  (as  we 
know  from  Acts  xvi.  10,  xx.  6)  specially  connected  with  Philippi. 
Moreover,  St.  Luke  was  still  with  the  Apostle  at  Rome  when  he 
wrote  the  Ephesians,  Colossians,  and  Philemon  (see  Acts  xxviii.  16, 
with  Col.  iv.  14,  and  Philem.  24),  but  not  with  him  when  he 
wrote  the  Philippians.  On  these  grounds  it  is  reasonable  to  con- 
clude that  Luke  may,  before  the  writing  of  that  Epistle,  have  re- 
turned to  Philippi;  and  in  fact,  that  he  is  the  '  true  yokefellow '  of 
Phil.  iv.  3. 

*  Phil,  i.3-5.    f  lb.  i.  3-5. 


208  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

in  his  prayers  night  and  day/*  The  fact  that  he 
is  in  the  habit  of  interceding  for  him  is  itself  made 
the  occasion  for  praise  :  and  then  follow  allusions 
to  their  last  parting  f  and  to  Timothy's  early 
childhood.  In  the  Colossians,  after  a  similar 
opening,  '  We  give  thanks  to  God  and  the  Father 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  praying  always  for 
you/J  the  Apostle  returns,  a  few  verses  below  to 
the  subject  of  prayer  :  '  For  this  cause,  since  the 
day  we  heard  of  your  love  in  the  Spirit,  we  do  not 
cease  to  pray  for  you,  that  ye  might  walk  worthy 
of  the  Lord  :  '§  and  again,  a  few  verses  below,  to 
the  subject  of  thanksgiving,  '  Giving  thanks  to 
the  Father,  who  hath  delivered  us  from  the  power 
of  darkness '  || — whereas  in  the  parallel  and  con- 
temporary Epistle  to  the  Ephesians  (and  students 
of  modern  critical  controversies  will  know  why  I 
note  this  **)  there  is  a  difference,  but  just  that  kind 

*  2  Tim.  i.  3,  4. 

f  On  this  last  parting,  and  the  feeling  connected  with  it,  see  p. 
80. 

X  Col.  i.  3.         §  lb.  9,  to.         ||  lb.  12,  13. 

**  The  objections  to  the  Pauline  authorship  of  the  Ephesians  are 
accepted  as  conclusive  even  by  Ewald,  who  with  his  strong  hand  has 


THANKSGIVING    AND    PRAYER.  200, 

of  difference  which  tends  to  mark  its  authenticity.* 
The  opening  is  Eucharistic,  but  in  this  form  : 
(  Blessed  be  the  God  and  the  Father  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  who  hath  blessed  us  with  all  spiritual 
blessings  in  Christ;'  and  it  is  not  till  after  a  con- 
thrown  down  some  fanciful  modern  theories,  as,  for  instance,  the 
theory  that  St.  Luke  did  not  write  the  Acts.  The  strongest  objec- 
tions are  that  the  author  does  not  seem  to  be  writing  to  a  church 
which  he  had  familiarly  known  ;  the  absence,  also,  of  personal 
messages  being  one  marked  feature  of  the  letter.  To  all  such  difficul- 
ties there  is  the  one  sweeping  reply,  that  no  one  but  St.  Paul  could 
have  been  the  writer.  But  objections  of  this  class  fall  to  the  ground 
in  proportion  as  we  believe  that  this  was  a  circular  letter,  addressed 
not  only  to  Ephesus,  but  to  many  places  over  a  large  district :  and 
and  in  this  point  of  view  the  absence  of  the  words  it/  'E^eVoi  from 
ch.  i.  ver.  1  in  the  Sir  aitic  codex  may  be  considered  a  very  impoitant 
fact.  Then,  as  to  personal  allusion,  we  have  in  the  mention  of 
Tychicus,  a  man  well  known  in  the  district  of  'Asia,'  and  espe- 
cially the  mode  in  which  he  is  mentioned  (iv.  21,  zx)  the  almost 
unmistakeable  mark  of  the  Apostle.  See  the  aiticle  Tychicus  in  the 
'  Dictionary  of  the  Bible.' 

*  This  mode  of  mentioning  prayer  and  thanksgiving — so  similar 
to  what  we  notice  in  the  Colossians,  yet  so  different — might  be 
added  to  the  instances  given  by  Paley  in  illustration  of  the  relation 
subsisting  between  the  two  Epistles.  In  that  one  chapter  of  the 
'  Horae  Paulinae '  there  seems  to  me  more  force  of  argument  for  the 
authenticity  of  the  Ephesians  than  in  all  the  objections  I  have  seen 
raised  against  it. 

P 


2IO  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

siderable  interval  that  something  like  the  accus- 
tomed formula  appears — '1  cease  not  to  give 
thanks  for  you,  making  mention  of  you  in  my 
prayers/  In  the  First  Epistle  to  the  Thessahnians 
we  have  at  the  outset  a  combination  of  prayer  and 
thanksgiving  similar  to  what  we  have  remarked 
elsewhere.  I  have  enumerated  now  the  majority 
of  St.  PauPs  letters,  and  shown  what  is  the 
general  law.  In  the  remaining  letters  there  is  a 
difference.  And,  first,  there  are  some  with  slight 
variations  from  the  law,  which  justify  their  being 
placed  in  a  separate  group. 

The  Second  Epistle  to  the  Thessahnians  opens 
only  with  thanksoivinff :  'We  are  bound  to  thank 
God  always  for  you,  brethren,  as  it  is  meet,  be- 
cause that  your  faith  groweth  exceedingly.''*  But 
the  prayer,  though  separated,  is  not  far  distant. 
At  the  end  of  the  first  chapter  we  find  the  Apostle 
saying  :  {  Wherefore  also  we  pray  always  for  you, 
that  our  God  would  count  you  worthy  of  this 
calling/f       Similarly  the    Second  Epistle   to   the 

*  zThess.  i.  3.  \  lb.*.  41. 


THANKSGIVING    AND    PRAYER.  211 

Corinthians  begins  with  an  outburst  of  praise* — • 
and  when,  after  a  good  interval,  he  does  come  to 
prayer,  it  is  interesting  to  observe  that  (in  har- 
mony with  the  character  of  the  context,  which  is 
full  of  the  deepest  sympathy)  it  is  not  his  prayer 
for  them,  but  their  prayer  for  hhn.f  The  First 
Epistle  to  Timothy  is  again  different ;  for  it  is  not 
till  after  hortatory  matter,  which  has 'occupied 
some  space,  that  the  thanksgiving  appears;  and 
then  it  is  a  thanksgiving  that  Jesus  Christ  had 
( counted  him  faithful/  %  putting  him  into  the 
ministry,  who  was  formerly  a  blasphemer :  and 
when  prayer  does  follow  (for  it  seems  as  if  one 
must  almost  always  follow  the  other)  it  is  public 
'  prayers  and  intercessions  for  all  men/  and  with 
public  prayers  (this  again  should  be  noticed)  pub- 
lic 'giving  of  thanks.' § 

Three  Epistles  remain.  I  implied  that  there 
were  exceptions  :  and  these  exceptions  are  them- 
selves important  to  our  argument.  The  First 
Epistle  to  the  Corinthians  and  the  Epistle  to  th*1 

*  2  Cor.  i.  3.      f  lb.  11.      X   i  Tim.  i.  12,  17.      §  lb.  ii.  i. 

P    2 


212  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

Galatians  are  both  marked  by  stern  severity.  The 
former  begins  with  thanksgiving  for  those  who  are 
addressed,  the  latter  with  a  general  doxology,  as  if 
St.  Paul  could  not  bear  to  censure  without  first 
acknowledging  the  goodness  of  God  —  but  no 
mention  of  prayer  follows.  The  thanksgiving 
stands  alone.  In  the  Epistle  to  Titus  there  is  no 
mention  at  all  either  of  thanksgiving  or  prayer. 
Will  the  authenticity  of  that  Epistle  be  questioned 
because  there  is  not  even  a  reference  to  prayer  in 
any  part  of  it,  and  will  this  be  added  to  various 
other  critical  objections  ?  *  But  the  same  thing 
is  true  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians,  which  can 
hardly  be  questioned  even  by  the  most  sceptical. 
That  prayer  should  not  be  mentioned  in  those 
Epistles  which  (for  different  reasons) f  are  marked 


*  I  am  not  aware  that  this  objection  has  ever  been  brought  for- 
ward :  but  it  is  quite  as  forcible  as  some  on  which  considerable 
stress  has  been  laid.  See  notes  above  (pp.  146,  147)  on  the  Pastoral 
Epistles. 

1'  !n  the  former  of  these  Epistles  the  harshness  arises  from  the 
severity  with  which  the  fickleness  and  faithlessness  of  the  Galatian 
Christians  is  rebuked ;    in  the  latter  the  whole  is  coloured  by  the 


THANKSGIVING    AND    PRAYER.  213 

by  a  certain  shade  of  harshness  is  a  noticeable 
fact:  and  in  this  absence  we  have  at  least  the 
absence  of  what  might  be  adduced,  by  a  de- 
structive critic,  as  a  mark  of  imitation.  But  not 
to  dwell  on  that  question  —  and  to  turn  now 
altogether  from  this  part  of  our  inquiry — we  have 
here,  I  think,  in  these  opening  passages  of  St. 
Paul's  Epistles,  indications  of  what  may  be  called 
a  devotional  principle  of  the  Apostle's  character 
worthy  of  the  attention  which  we  have  given  to 
them  in  detail. 

But  this  devotional  principle  comes  into  view, 
not  only  in  this  mode  of  beginning  the  Epistles, 
but  in  a  tendency  throughout  the  Epistles  to  burst 
forth  (as  it  were)  in  supplication  and  doxology. 
This  feature  of  the  writings  is  quite  as  characteris- 
tic as  the  other.  Every  statement  of  doctrine 
seems  to  lead  to  a  thanksgiving.  Every  discussion 
of  a  practical  subject  seems  to  suggest  a  prayer. 
I  need  not  here  occupy  you  with  detailed  proofs, 

coarse  and  brutal  character  of  the  Cretan  population,  among  whom 
Titus  was  sent  to  labour. 


214  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

as  I  have  done  in  regard  to  the  former  point. 
Every  one  familiar  with  St.  PauPs  Epistles  knows 
where  to  find  these  springs  of  devotional  thought. 
It  is  the  life  which  comes  out  at  every  crevice  of 
the  reasoning,  which  bursts  out  here  and  there, 
like  a  fountain,  amid  varied  allusions  to  incidents 
and  sufferings — at  other  times,  at  the  base  of  an 
abrupt  fall  from  some  lofty  argument,  comes  forth 
like  a  full  and  exuberant  and  abundant  river.  I 
know  of  no  more  instructive  study  than  to  go 
over  all  the  ground  from  Romans  to  Philemon, 
taking  the  structure  of  the  Epistles  as  we  find  it, 
and  observing  these  streams  of  prayer  and  praise, 
sometimes  as  they  appear  separately,  very  fre- 
quently together.  It  is  not  merely  that  we  have 
grand  doxologies  after  the  announcement  of  some 
great  truth  or  at  the  prospect  of  some  glorious 
future — as  in  the  letter  to  the  Romans :  (  O  the 
depth  of  the  riches,  both  of  the  wisdom  and 
knowledge  of  God  ! 3  *  or  in  the  First  to  the 
Corinthians :    '  Thanks  be  to  God  which  giveth 

*  Rom.  xi.  37. 


THANKSGIVING    AND    PRAYER.  215 

us  the  victory,  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ !  '  * 
The  habit  strikes  us  more  forcibly  when  the  re- 
ference is  to  something  personal.  Thus,  at  the 
mention  of  the  long-delayed,  but  at  last  accom- 
plished, meeting  with  Titus  :  l  Now  thanks  be  to 
God,  which  always  causeth  us  to  triumph  in 
Christ !  'f  or  after  the  acknowledgment  of  a  con- 
tribution from  Philippi  in  relief  of  his  temporal 
wants  :  (  Now  unto  God  and  our  Father  be  glory 
for  ever  and  ever  !  Am  en/  \  Even  in  his  state- 
ment of  a  fact,  Paul  uses  an  eucharistic  form 
'  Who  shall  deliver  me  ?  I  thank  God  through 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord/§  '  Thanks  he  to  God 
which  put  this  into  the  heart  of  Titus/ 1|  c  I  thank 
GodiYi&t  I  baptised  none  save  Crispus  and  Gains/** 
'I  thank  my  God,  I  speak  with  tongues  more  than 
you  all/ft  Even  when  he  speaks  of  food,  the 
name  which  he  employs  is  :  '  that  for  which  I  give 
thanks.'XX     And  what  is  said  of  thanksgiving  may 

*    1  Cor.  xv.  57.  f  2  Cor.  ii.  14.         %  Phil.  iv.  20. 

§  Rom.  vii.  25.  j|   2  Cor.  viii.  16.          **    r    Cor.  i.  14. 

tt  lb.  xiv.  18. 

%X  l  Cor.  x.  30.  See  be'ow,  p.  227,  for  the  habit  of  expressing 


2l6  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

similarly  be  said  of  prayer.  Thus,  with  the  same 
kind  of  exuberant  impulse,  after  a  doctrinal  state- 
ment :  '  For  this  cause  /  bow  my  knees  unto  the 
Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that  He  would 
grant  you  to  be  strengthened  with  might  by  His 
Spirit  in  the  inner  man/*  So  when  he  has  been 
describing  his  projected  journey:  c  Now  the  God 
of  peace  he  with  yon.'f  So  when  he  has  been 
giving  advice  to  an  individual  :  '  Consider  what  I 
say  :  and  the  Lord  give  thee  understanding  in  all 
things.'^  Evidently  with  St.  Paul  the  law  of 
Prayer  is  the  law  of  Praise.  Supplication  and 
Gratitude  are  almost  always  interlinked  together  ; 
or  at  least  when  one  is  present,  the  other  :s  seldom 
far  absent.  '  I  will  pray  with  the  Spirit,  and  I 
will  sing  with  the  Spirit :   I  will  pray  with  the  un- 

hankfulness  at  meal  times.  Gratitude  for  the  supply  of  temporal 
wants  is  very  marked  in  St.  Paul.  See  Phil.  iv.  10-19.  But  espe- 
cially notice  one  part  of  his  condemnation  of  the  Heathen  in  Rom. 
i.  21  :  '  Wh:n  they  knew  God,  they  glorified  Him  not  as  God, 
neither  icere  thcnikful.'  It  is  exactly  the  feeling  which  finds  expres- 
sion in  the  address  to  the  Heathen  at  Lystra  (Acts  xiv.  17)  :  'He 
gave  us  fruitful  seasons,  filling  out  hearts  With  food  and  uladness.' 
*   Eph.  iii.  14-16.  f  Rom.  xv.  33.  X   -  Tim.  ii.  7, 


THANKSGIVING    AND    PRAYER.  2\>] 

derstanding,  and  I  will  sing  with  the  understand- 
ing/* In  the  Christian  life  he  clearly  assumes 
that  Thanksgiving  will  follow  easily  in  the  foot- 
steps of  Prayer,  and  that  Prayer  will  be  mindful 
to  fill  the  place  which  has  just  been  occupied  by 
Thanksgiving.  Two  parallel  sentences  from  the 
Ephesians  may  conclude  this  imperfect  list  of 
illustrations:  '  Giving  thanks  always  for  all  things 
unto  God  and  the  Father  in  the  name  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ. f  Praying  always  with  all  prayer 
and  supplication  in  the  Spirit,  and  watching  there- 
unto with  all  perseverance.';);  Different  as  St. 
Paul's  Epistles  are  in  most  respects  from  the 
Psalms  of  David,  they  resemble  them  in  this 
combination.  The  lesson  derived  from  both,  and 
in  both  cases  alike  enforced  by  the  writer's  ex- 
ample, is  this  :  (  Offer  unto  God  thanksgiving ;  and 
call  upon  Him  in  the  time  of  trouble :  so  will  He 
hear  thee,  and  thou  shalt  praise  Him.'§ 

And  now,  to  turn  to  the  Acts  of  the   Apostles, 
do  we  find  anything  there  in  harmony  with  what 

*  i  Cor.  xiv.  15.     f  Eph.  \.  20,     %  lb.  vi.  18.      §  Ps.  I    14,  15. 


2l8  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 


we  have  seen  in  the  Epistles  ?  Can  the  line  of 
observation  which  we  have  just  been  following, 
and  which  results  in  bringing  into  view  a  consis- 
tent feature  of  Christian  character,  can  this  line 
of  observation  still  be  followed  in  the  History 
with  the  same  effect  ?  Do  we  find  prayer  and 
thanksgiving  still  characterising  St.  Paul  in  the 
Acts,  and  especially  prayer  in  conjunction  ivith 
thanksgiving  ?  Now  certainly,  if  it-  were  not  so, 
there  would  be  no  cause  for  surprise.  Luke's 
purpose  is  not  to  give  PauPs  religious  experience. 
The  narrative  in  the  Acts  is  no  mere  panegyric, 
or  mere  record  of  frames  and  feelings,  like  some 
modern  religious  memoirs.  It  is  a  plain  story  of 
God's  dealings  with  the  world  in  the  first  founding 
of  His  Church.  We  see  Paul  there  in  his  jour- 
neys, his  conflicts,  his  sufferings,  his  speeches. 
The  inner  man  cannot  come  so  fully  to  view  in  a 
narrative  like  this  as  in  a  series  of  letters  written 
by  himself.  But  it  does  so  happenj  or  rather  it  is 
graciously  ordered  (such  is  the  manifold  richness 
of  Scripture)  that  we  have  enough  and  more  than 


THANKSGIVING    AND    PRAYER.  219 

enough  for  our  argument  in  some  of  those  little 
touches  which  help  to  bring  into  distinct  light  the 
very  feature  we  have  been  noticing  in  the  portrait 
presented  by  the  Epistles. 

Certain  recorded  prayers,  with  which  St.  Paul 
was  intimately  concerned,  may  be  omitted  from 
our  consideration.  Such,  for  instance,  were  those 
which  may  be  called  official  prayers,  whether 
offered  up  on- more  than  one  occasion,  when  he 
was  sent  on  missionary  expeditions,*  or  when 
he  himself  appointed  presbyters  to  teach  and  to 
govern  the  churches  he  had  founded. f  Under  the 
same  head  we  might  include  the  supplications 
which  preceded  the  working  of  miracles. %  So 
iseither  need  I  dwell  on  prayers  of  public  worship, 
whether  offered  up  at  a  festival  in  the  Temple  at 
Jerusalem — a  passage  alluded  to  in  a  previous 
discourse^  but  for    a  different   reason,  and   in  a 

*  Acts  xiii.  1—3  ;  xiv.  26  ;  xv.  40.     f  lb.  xiv.  23.     X  lb.  xxviii.  8. 

§  lb.  xxiv.  11.  See  Lecture  I.  pp.  20-22.  To  what  is  there 
said  concerning  St.  Paul's  associating  himself  with  a  season  of 
Jewish  worship,  I  add,  by  the  suggestion  of  a  friend,  that  there 
might  be  here  the  beginnings  of  a  Christian  Festival.  As  the  last 
traces  of  Pentecost  were  fading,  the  new  feeling  of  Whitsuntide  might 
be  growing. 


220  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 


different  connection — or  far  away  from  Jerusalem, 
by  the  river-side  at  Philippic  l  where  prayer  was 
wont  to  be  made '  * — though  these  things  all  il- 
lustrate the  atmosphere  of  devotion,  in  the  midst 
of  which  the  Apostle  moved  and  laboured  and  the 
Christian  religion  began  its  work  upon  the  earth. 
It  is  enough,  too,  merely  to  be  reminded  that  the 
visions  on  four  several  occasions  almost  certainly 
imply  supplication,  as  most  of  them  also  are  as- 
sociated with  distinctly  eueharistic  feeling.f  As 
to  the  vow  at  Cenchreae,  perplexing  as  it  is,  that 
surely  implies  thanksgiving  as  well  as  prayer. 
Much  stress  might  be  laid,  and  justly,  on  another 

*  Acts  xvi.  13-16.  The  words  ov  hofxi^ero  irporrevxh  elf  at  seem 
to  indicate,  not  only  the  fact,  but  the  desire  for  worship  with  which 
St.  Paul   and   St.  Luke  went  there.     See  also  v.  16. 

•f  Acts  xvi.  6-9;  xviii.  9;  xxiii.  11;  xxvii.  24.  This  tone 
cannot  be  mistaken  in  the  '  Fear  not — be  of  goodr  cheer — be  not 
afraid'  mentioned  above  (p.  97).  We  should  re  r ark,  too,  the 
cheerful  practical  way  in  which  preparations  are  made  for 
the  voyage  to  Macedonia,  immediately  after  the  vision  at  Troas 
(Acts  xvi.  10) — nor  can  we  doubt  that  St.  Paul  had  been  praying 
in  his  previous  perplexity  (lb.  6-8).  The  safety  of  all  the  people  on 
board  the  Alexandrian  ship  seems  likewise  to  be  distinctly  presented 
to  us  as  the  answer  to  intercessory  prayer  (lb.  xxvii.  24). 


THANKSGIVING    AND    PRAYER.  221 

point,  namely,  that  generally  throughout  the  Acts 
there  is  an  air  of  thankfulness — a  holy,  joyous 
cheerfulness  —  which  arises  in  a  great  measure 
from  the  impression  which  St.  Paul's  character 
communicates.  But  to  open  out  that  argument 
would,  from  its  very  indirectness,  demand  some 
time.*      And    our  business  is  rather  to  look    for 

*  We  may  especially  refer  to  the  end  of  what  might  be  called  the 
Petrine  part  of  the  Acts  (o  5e  \6yos  tov  ®eov  r)v£ave  kou  iir\r]dvueTO 
x'v.  24),  and  the  end  of  what  might  be  called  the  Pauline  part 
(SiddiTKOiiv  .  .  (Aero,  7rda-r]S7rappr]aias  aKooXvTws,  xxviii.  31).  Notice, 
too,  the  following  passages,  as  specimens,  ii.  46,  47  ;  v.  41  ;  xiv.  17 
(already  alluded  to,  p.  216  u.)  ;  xxvi.  2  ;  xxvii.  3.  And  so  far  as 
in  any  of  these  cases  we  see  St.  Paul's  cheerfulness  in  any  way  con- 
nected with  outward  circumstances,  so  far  we  have  something  in 
elucidation  of  his  personal  character. 

It  is  very  interesting  further  to  connect  all  this  with  St.  Luke  per- 
sonally, and  with  St.  Luke's  Gospel,  which  also  seems  to  me 
marked  and  distinguished  by  an  eucharistic  tone.  To  prove  this 
fully  would  require  some  space ;  but  I  may  suggest  a  comparison  of 
the  number  of  times  in  which  such  words  as  ayaWiaai?,  %aiW> 
^v<bpaivojxai  occur  in  the  Acts  and  St.  Luke,  compared  with  the 
number  of  times  in  the  other  three  Evangelists.  To  this  may  be 
added  the  peculiarly  cheerful  strain  of  the  last  verse  of  the  Gospel, 
and  those  three  hymns  at  the  beginning  of  it,  which  have  become 
the  perpetual  possession  of  the  Church  for  public  worship,  and  are 
associated  with  all  the  joy  of  Christmas. 


Ill  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 


something  definite,  and  something  which  has 
a  more  distinctly  personal  and  individual  in- 
terest. 

Now  what  shall  we  say  of  the  words  uttered  at 
the  very  threshold  of  his  converted  life?  '  What 
shall  I  do,  Lord  ?  '*  Have  we  not  here  the  key- 
note of  his  subsequent  career  most  audibly  and 
definitely  struck  ?  Have  we  not  here  (besides  the 
active  energy  which  longs  to  be  employed)  the 
willing  readiness  to  do  anything  and  go  anywhere 
— the  absolute  submission  which  refers  all  to  a 
Divine  guide — and  with  this,  the  deep  sense  of 
individual  responsibility  ?  The  essence  of  all 
Christian  devotion  is  in  the  words.  It  is  really  a 
prayer  involving  every  other  prayer.  And  what 
we  find  here,  on  the  road  to  Damascus,  we  find 
more  explicitly  still  in  Damascus  itself — 'Behold 
he  prayeth.'  f  In  this  short,  but  momentous 
statement    of   the  Lord  to  Ananias, J  we  are  at 

*  Acts  xxii.  to.  f  lb.  ix.  u. 

X  Dean  Stanley  ('Sermons  on  the  Apost.  Age,'  p.  162)  speaks  of 
the  '  three  days  '  at  Damascus  as  a  time  of  '  stupor '  ;  but  surely  this 
is  an  inadequate  account  of  this  critical  period,  and  hardly  consistent 


THANKSGIVING    AND    PRAYER.  2,2$ 

the  beginning  of  that  long  series  of  petitions 
which  he  poured  out  in  the  opening  sentences  of 
his  Epistles,  and  throughout  them,  and  in  the 
daily  unrecorded  habit  of  his  life.  And  still  we 
catch  the  same  strain  here  and  there,  incidentally, 
as  we  follow  the  course  of  the  biography.  He 
returns  to  Jerusalem  ;  and  nearly  all  that  we  know 
of  what  occurred  then  is  connected  with  a  prayer. 
He  was  thus  engaged — privately — in  the  Temple 
(as  he  told  the  Jews  long  afterwards)  when  he 
received  the  order  to  leave  the  Holy  City  and  go 
to  the  Gentiles.*  And  afterwards,  in  those  various 
journeys  through  the  Gentile  world,  still  we  can 
discern  the  traces  of  this  habit  of  prayer.  See 
him  at  Miletus.  Not  a  word,  indeed,  is  said 
directly  in  that  affecting  address,  either  of  praise 
or  supplication.  But  far  more  emphatic  than  any 
words  is  the  fact  recorded,  that  when  he  closed 
the  address,  instinctively  and  as  a  matter  of  course, 

with    the    iBov   irpoaevx^rai.     De  Pressense  lays  much  stress  on 
this  solemn  interval.     See  below,  p.  263. 
*  Acts  xxii.  17, 


224  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

s  He  kneeled  down  and  prayed  with  them  all/* 
A  similar  scene  was  witnessed  on  the  same  voyage 
soon  afterwards  at  Tyre.  There  again,  at  parting, 
St.  Luke  says,  ( We  kneeled  down  on  the  shore 
and  prayed.'f  It  was  a  voyage  marked  by  peculiar 
sadness.  Yet  even  here  (it  should  be  observed) 
there  is  an  under-tone  of  thanksgiving,  which 
cannot  fail  to  be  observed  by  those  who  have 
caught  the  spirit  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles.  How 
like  to  passages  in  those  Epistles  is  that  sentence 
in  which  he  speaks  to  the  Ephesian  elders  of 
'finishing  his  course  with  joy  i  'J  So,  likewise,  in 
the  words  addressed  afterwards  at  Caesarea  to 
Agrippa  ('  I  would  to  God  that  ye  all  were  such 
as  I  am,  except  these  bonds') §  a  joyful  thankful 
tone  is  distinctly  audible.  The  words  are  charac- 
teristic, not  only  (as  has  been  noticed  elsewhere ||) 
of  self-possession  and  courtesy,  combined  with  an 
earnest  desire  for  the  salvation  of  those  to  whom 
he    spoke — but    of  that   other  combination  —  of 

*  Acts.  xx.  36.  t  lb.  xxi.  5.  J  lb.  xx.  24. 

§  lb.  xxv i.  29.  ||  Lect.  I.  p.  51;  Lect.  II.  p.  112. 


THANKSGIVING    AND    PRAYER.  %%$ 


prayer  with  thanksgiving — which  we  are  now  con- 
sidering.* But  if  we  go  back  to  an  earlier  point 
of  the  history  we  find  that  combination  which  we 
are  seeking  in  perhaps  the  most  vivid  form  in 
which  it  was  ever  exhibited.  When  Paul,  after 
being  '  shamefully  treated,  as  we  know,  at  Phi- 
lippi/  f  was  in  the  inner  prison  —  not  only 
bleeding  and  bruised — but  in  a  position  of  present 
torture  far  too  painful  to  allow  of  his  sleeping  (as 
Peter  slept  in  that  other  prison  at  Jerusalem  J),  we 
should  not  be  surprised  to  hear  that  he  was  pray- 
ing. What  else  can  a  Christian  do  in  times  of 
insult,  sorrow,  and  suffering  ?  Yes ;  there  is  one 
thing  more  that  he  can  do,  and  ought  to  do.  We 
read  that  on  that  occasion,  in  the  middle  of  the 
night,  Paul  and  his  companion  were  not  only 
praying,  but  also  singing  hymns  of  praise  to  God, 
and  that  the  prisoners  were  listening; §  This  was, 
indeed,  an   anticipation    in    practice   of   what    he 

*  The  French  writer,  Colani,  in  one  of  three  rather  striking  ser- 
mons on  this  scene,  speaks  of  the  '  energiejoyeuse '  which  the  Apostle 
showed  on  this  occasion.     '  Nouveaux  Sermons,'  p.  103. 

f   1  Thess.  ii.  z.  J  Acts  xii.  6.  §  lb.  xvi.  25. 

QL 


226  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

afterwards  enjoined  on  this  very  Philippian  church. 
1  Rejoice  in  the  Lord  alway :  and  again  I  say  re- 
joice. ...  Be  careful  for  nothing :  but  in  every- 
thing by  prayer  and  supplication  with  thanksgiving 
let  your  requests  be  made  known  to  God/*  But 
let  us  end  this  cursory  examination  of  the  Acts  of 
the  Apostles  by  looking  at  the  two  closing  chap- 
ters. See  St.  Paul  again  (where  we  have  seen  him 
beforef)  in  the  sinking  vessel,  while  the  day  is 
beginning  to  dawn  and  the  coast  is  coming  into 
view.  He  is  encouraging  all  who  are  present, 
after  their  long  suspense  and  fatigue,  to  refresh 
themselves  with  food  ;  and  how  calmly — how  in- 
stinctively— he  begins  by  l  thanking  God  before 
them  all  V\  As  thereat  Philippi  physical  pain  did 
not  cause  him  to  intermit  his  devotions,  but  rather 
quickened  them  into  a  more  joyous  life,  so  here  no 
sense  of  pressing  danger,  no  fear  of  man,  hindered 

*  Phil.  iv.  4-6.  This  phrase,  'joyous  energy,'  exactly  describes 
one  main  characteristic  of  his  Epistle  to  the  Philippians,  See  note 
above,  p.  206.     See  also  Lect.  V.  p.  298. 

f  See  Lect.  i.p.  13,  and  Lect.  II.  p.  113. 

%  Acts  xxvii.  35. 


THANKSGIVING    AND    PRAYER.  227 

him  from  confessing  God  by  that  simple  act  of 
grace  lefore  meat,  which,  in  the  Church  of  Christ, 
is  one  of  our  daily  modes  of  expressing  habitual 
thankfulness.*  One  of  his  own  characteristic 
sentences — from  a  Pastoral  Epistle — helps  us  to 
realise  the  significance  of- the  act:  f  God  created 
food  to  be  received  with  thanksgiving  by  them  that 
believe:  everything  is  good,  if  it  Be  received  with 

*  The  phrase  applied  to  food  in  i  Cor.  x.  30  ('  that  for  which  I 
give  thanks')  has  been  referred  to  before,  p.  ziK.  Bishop  Butler  (in 
his  '  Charge  to  the  Clergy  of  Durham,'  1 75 1,  after  urging  the  im- 
portance of  'external  acts  of  piety  and  devotion,  and  the  frequent 
returns  of  them,  as  necessary  to  keep  up  a  sense  of  religion,'  speaks 
of  family  prayer  and  rules  of  private  devotion,  and  then  adds  :  '  A 
duty  of  the  like  kind,  and  serving  to  the  same  purpose,  is  the  par- 
ticular acknowledgment  to  God  when  we  are  partaking  of  His 
bounty  at  our  meals.  The  neglect  of  this  is  said  to  have  been 
scandalous  to  a  proverb  in  the  heathen  world  ;  but  it  is  without 
shame  laid  aside  at  the  tables  of  the  highest  and  the  lowest  rank 
among  us.'  Such  observances  may  doubtless  easily  degenerate  into 
forms  ;  but  it  is  to  be  feared  that  this  kind  of  reluctance  to  make  a 
calm  and  reverent  acknowledgment  of  God's  presence  on  ordinary 
occasions  is  often  simply  the  dread  of  confessing  Christ  before  men  ; 
and  perhaps  it  is  peculiarly  important  to  watch  against  such  incon- 
sistency now,  when  the  process  of  international  imitations  is  so 
largely  going  on  :  for  we  are  generally  most  tempted  to  imitate  what 
is  faulty. 

Q    2 


228         THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

thanksgiving :  for  it  is  consecrated  by  the  word  of 
God  and  prayer.'*  And  now  follow  him  after  he 
has  landed  in  Italy,  and  is  proceeding  northwards 
along  the  Appian  way.  One  of  the  most  decisive 
instances  of  what  we  are  seeking  occurs  near  the 
very  close  of  the  narrative.  Two  companies  of  Chris- 
tians, having  heard  of  his  arrival  at  Puteoli,  went 
to  meet  him  as  far  as  Appii  Forum  and  Three 
Taverns,  t  —  f  whom  when  Paul  saw,  he  thanked 
God  and  took  courage/J  Here  the  music  of  a 
thankful  heart  breaks  out  clearly  and  unequi- 
vocally ;  and  the  remembrance  of  it  always  seems 
to  me  to  associate  a  peculiar  cheerfulness  with  that 
dreary  level  beyond  Albano,  with  which  many  of 
us  are  familiar.  And  one  special  charm  of  the 
passage  is  that  marked  characteristic  of  this  Apostle 
— his  social  feeling§ — his  sympathy — his  personal 
gratitude — his  sense  of  help  derived  from  fellow 
Christians.  It  is  exactly  the  same  kind  of  thank- 
fulness which    the   Epistles   connect   with    Titus, 

*  I  Tim.  iv.  3-5.     f  See  again  Lect.  V.  p.  298,  n.     %  Actsxxviii.  15. 

§  The  cheerful  sociability  of  St.  Paul  is  especially  noted  by  Nie- 
meyer. 


THANKSGIVING    AND    PRAYER.  220, 

Epaphroditus,  and  Onesimus.*  Thus  have  we 
gathered  from  various  scenes  of  St.  Paul's  life — 
from  the  highway  near  Damascus,  from  the  high- 
way near  Rome,  from  both  sides  of  the  JEgean, 
from  the  Syrian  coast,  and  from  Malta — enough,  I 
venture  to  assert,  for  establishing  our  position,  and 
for  proving  that  in  all  the  shifting  aspects  of  the 
one  web  of  Christian  experience,  which  the  life  of 
the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles  supplies  —  Thanks- 
giv  rig  and  Prayer  were  the  light  and  the  shade, 
the  warp  and  the  woof. 

1  a  the  time  which  remains  I  believe  our  best 
course  will  be  to  notice  some  detached  charac- 
teristics of  St.  Paul's  prayer  and  thanksgiving; 
and  if  our  reflections  tend,  as  when  last  we  met, 
to  assume  the  form  of  a  practical  application  to 
our  own  consciences,  it  is  in  this  spirit  that  we 
should  wish  to  take  our  leave  f  of  the  subject  of 
these  Sermons. 

*  See  Lect.  II.  p.  1 25.  In  St.  Paul  gratitude  to  man  is  ever  blended 
with  thankfulness  to  God. 

f  This  was  the  last  of  the  course  of  University  Sermons  for 
October.  The  subject  was  resumed  in  the  fifth  Sermon,  after  some 
months.     See  p.  242. 


230  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

One  conclusion  to  which  we  are  brought  by  a 
careful  consideration  of  all  that  has  been  adduced 
from  the  Acts,  and  especially  from  the  Epistles,  is 
that  St.  Paul  must  have  spent  a  very  large  amount 
of  time  in  prayer  *  Otherwise  surely  he  could 
hardly  speak  as  he  does  of  praying  always — with 
thanksgiving — night  and  day — sometimes  confirm- 
ing the  statement  with  an  oath.f  Nor  could 
thanksgiving  and  prayer — not  precepts  concerning 
thanksgiving  and  prayer,  but  thanksgiving  and 
prayer  themselves  —  burst  out  so  naturally  and 
constantly  in  his  writings,  unless  they  were  a 
habit.  Mere  feelings,  mere  devotional  impulses, 
will  not  explain  these  phenomena.  I  cannot 
doubt  that  his   private   daily  devotions   were  with 

*  See  Lect.  II,  p.  76.  Some  stress  is  to  be  laid  also,  1  think 
on  the  article  in  the  constantly- recurring  phrase  iirl  t&v  irpoaeux^ 

fJLOV. 

f  Rom.  i.  9  ;  Phil.  i.  8.  St.  Paul's  frequent  use  of  oaths  has  been 
mentioned  above,  p.  169.  This  habit  seems  to  be  specially  con- 
nected with  allusions  of  a  personal  kind,  and  it  may  be  traced  in  the 
Pastoral  Epistles.  See  1  Tim.  ii.  7  ;  v.  21  ;  vi.  13;  2  Tim.  iv.  1. 
When  he  makes  a  solemn  statement  under  the  sense  ot  God's  pre- 
sence, he  does  not  hesitate  to  express  this;  and  this  is  an  important 
commentary  on  our  Lord's  words  in  Matt.  v.  33-37. 


THANKSGIVING    AND    PRAYER.  23I 


St.  Paul  a  very  deliberate  and  serious  business — 
that  he  had  rules  on  the  subject,  and  that  he  strove 
by  God's  help,  to  keep  those  rules.  This  is  not, 
indeed,  the  view  that  we  naturally  and  obviously 
take  of  the  great  Apostle  at  the  first  superficial 
glance  of  his  journeys  and  his  labours;  but  when 
we  think  closelv,  we  easily  conclude  that  at  the 
deep  foundation  of  his  life  and  his  writings  is  the 
habit  of  intimate  and  calm  and  earnest  commu- 
nion with  his  God.* 

But  when  I  say  rules,  I  do  not  mean  bondage. 
This  would,  indeed,  be  contrary  to  all  that  the 
Apostle  teaches  us,  both  by  precept  and  example. 
Paul's  prayers  were  very  different  from  formalism. 
But  this,  I  conceive,  was  not  because  he  was  not 
punctual  and  watchful,  but  because  he  combined 
tkankgiving  with  his  prayers.  This  is  the  in- 
gredient  which  takes  out  of   our  religion   every 

*  Observe  the  yprjyopovires  in  Col.  iv.  2.  This  'wakefulness' 
of  mind  cannot  be  maintained  without  the  habit  of  vigilant  self- 
discipline.  It  is  not  out  of  place  here  to  mention  the  sclitary 
journey  to  Assos  (Acts  xx.  13),  which  is  more  particularly  noticed 
in  the  next  Lecture,  p.  288,  n. 


232  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

element  of  slavery.  Of  the  fact  of  this  combi- 
nation I  have  nothing  more  to  say  then  what  has 
been  said  already.  I  am  only  here  inviting  atten- 
tion to  an  Apostolic  pattern,  which  is  our  best 
encouragement  in  those  struggles  in  regard  to 
private  devotion,  which  (unless  we  have  yielded  to 
our  carelessness  and  worldliness)  are  with  many  of 
us  struggles  more  real  than  we  should  like  to  con- 
fess. 

But  again,  as  to  this  union  of  asking  and  prais- 
ing, which  we  are  assuming  as  a  fact  in  the  ex- 
perience of  St.  Paul,  we  have  to  observe,  further, 
that  the  subjects  of  one  are  the  subjects  of  the 
other.  Here,  once  more,  we  cannot  separate 
them.  What  we  say  of  one  we  must  say  also  of 
the  other  :  and  the  connection  is  so  close  that, 
in  some  of  the  passages  I  have  referred  to,  it  is 
not  always  easy  to  disentangle  the  grammatical 
construction,  and  to  say  what  refers  to  prayer  and 
what  to  thanksgiving.  For  instance,  he  does  not 
simply  pray  to  God  on  behalf  of  his  friends,  but 
he  thanks  God  on  their  behalf.     Every  true  Chris- 


THANKSGIVING    AND    PRAYER.  233 

tian  prays  for  his  friends,  and  desires  that  they 
may  have  and  enjoy  spiritual  blessings.  But  do 
we  often  thank  God  for  our  friends,  and  for  the 
spiritual  attainments  they  may  already  Have 
reached  ?  We  have  the  example  of  St.  Paul  for 
this,  both  as  regards  Churches  and  individuals ; 
and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  such  admixture  of 
praise  would  largely  quicken  our  power  of  inter- 
cession. 

This  leads  me  to  notice,  in  the  next  place,  that 
a  very  large  part  of  St.  Paul's  prayer  was  inter- 
cessory *      And    here,  again,  is    a    cheering  and 

*  St.  Paul's  gratitude  to  his  friends,  and  to  those  who  had  been 
of  service  to  him,  has  been  mentioned  above,  pp.  125,  a  d  228,  229. 
We  find  in  him  this  gratitude  specially  taking  the  form  of  prayer 
ok  their  behalf.  Thus,  again,  we  have  supplication  and  thankfulness 
blended  together.  Both  the  minuteness  and  expansiveness  of  the 
prayer  for  Onesiphorus  (2  Tim.  i.  16—18  ;  iv.  19)  should  be  carefully 
noticed.  On  the  one  hand  St.  Paul  lingers  in  detail  on  the  kindness 
which  Onesiphorus  had  shown  to  him ;  on  the  other  he  is  not  con- 
tent with  praying  for  him  individually,  but  his  intercession  extends 
to  all  his  '  household.'  The  same  Epistle  supplies  an  instance  of 
prayer  for  faithless  friends  (iv.  16).  Those  who  treated  St.  Paul  ill 
personally  are,  in  the  spirit  of  his  Lord  and  St.  Stephen,  more  than 
forgiven  ;  while  those  who  obstinately  resisted  the  truth,  are  referred 
to  God's  righteous  judgment.     (lb.  14). 


234  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

encouraging  element  in  the  exercise  of  devotion. 
Natural  Affection  is  called  in  to  reinforce  our  in- 
dolence and  deadness.  Nowhere  does  Christian 
sympathy  find  a  richer  opportunity  than  in  recipro- 
cal intercession.  Nowhere  does  supplication  more 
easily  lead  to  praise.  Thus  we  return  once  more, 
by  another  path,  to  that  combination  which  meets 
us  everywhere.  Take  an  illustration  from  that 
Second  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  from  which 
quotations  have  been  so  often  made  in  these 
Lectures.  '  God  delivered  us,  and  I  trust  He  will 
deliver  us,  ye  also  helping  together  by  prayer  for 
us,  that  for  the  gift  bestowed  upon  us  by  the 
means  of  many  persons  thanks  may  be  given  by 
many  on  our  behalf/* 

Yet  in  noticing  how  much  St.  Paul  prayed  for 
others,  we  must  not  forget  that  he  prayed  also  for 
himself,  in  regard  to  the  urgent  pressing  trials  of 
the  moment.  There  is  no  doubt  that  his  journeys 
were  with  him  a  subject  of  constant  supplication. f 

*  2  Cor.  i.  10,  ii. 

f  See  Rom.  i.  10;  xv.  30-32  ;   1  Thess.  iii.  10,  11.    This  subject 


THANKSGIVING    AND    PRAYER.  2$$ 

But  the  one  marked  instance  is  the  thrice-repeated 
entreaty  to  be  delivered  from  thatthorn  in  the  flesh 
which  he  felt  to  be  'a.  minister  of  Satan/*  Yet 
here  too  is  the  same  law  of  combination  :  even 
that  prayer,  as  was  observed  on  a  previous  occa- 
sion^ was  turned  into  a  thanksgiving;  because 
by  means  of  that  affliction  he  learnt  to  know 
more  of  his  own  weakness  and  of  '  the  power  of 
Christ  resting  on  him. ''J 

But  ever  the  chief  end  and  aim  of  his  prayers 
(whether  they  are  offered  up  on  his  own  behalf  or 
that  of  others)  is  the  Glory  of  God  and  the 
extension  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  Still  this  has 
the  first  place — whether  in  his  own  sufferings  or  in 
the  joy  which  he  feels  for  fellow-Christians — still 

might  be  considered  with  advantage  in  connection  with  the  various 
checks  and  hindrances,  the  unexpected  encouragements,  the  guiding 
by  means  of  circumstances  independent  of  himself,  which  we  can 
tiare  in  the  Apostle's  missionary  journeys.  All  this  inward  and 
outward  experience  must  have  been  a  training  for  the  habit  of  patient 
reliance  on  God's  Piovidence. 

*  2  Cor.  xii.  7. 

f  Lect.  II.  p.  91. 
2  Cor.  xii.  9. 


2$6  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

it  is,  first  and  foremost,  '  Hallowed  be  Thy  name  : 
Thy  kingdom  come  :  Thy  will  be  done/  It  is 
Luther,  I  think,  who  said  that  the  true  Christian 
prays  an  everlasting  Lord's  prayer,  inasmuch  as 
his  whole  desire  centres  in  GodV  kingdom.  And 
how  eucharistic  is  the  character  of  that  prayer, 
especially  with  the  doxology  which,  from  the 
earliest  ages,  has  been  attached  to  it !  To  the 
Colossians  St.  Paul  says  (and  I  am  not  repeating 
what  I  have  quoted  before)  :  '  We  do  not  cease  to 
pray  for  you,  and  to  desire  that  ye  might  be  filled 
with  the  knowledge  of  His  will  .  .  .  giving  thanks 
unto  the  Father,  who  hath  translated  us  into  the 
kingdom  of  His  dear  Son.''*  So  to  the  Thessalo- 
nians  (in  the  First  Epistle)  :  '  What  thanks  can  we 
render  to  God  again  for  you,  for  all  the  joy  where- 
with we  joy  for  your  sakes  before  our  God;  night 
and  day  praying  exceedingly  that  we  might  see 
your  face,  and  might  perfect  that  which  is  lacking 
in  your  faith  ?  Now  God  Himself  and  our 
Father,  and  our    Lord    Jesus    Christ,  direct    our 

*  Col.  i.  9,  i'.,  13. 


THANKSGIVING    AND    PRAYER.  237 

way  unto  you/*  And  to  the  same  (in  the  Second 
Epistle)  :  We  pray  always  for  you,  that  our  God 
would  count  you  worthy  of  this  calling,  and  fulfil 
all  the  good  pleasure  of  His  goodness  and  the 
work  of  faith  with  power  :  that  the  name  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  may  be  glorified-}-.  .  .  .  But  we 
are  bound  to  give  thanks  alway  for  you,  brethren 
beloved  of  the  Lord,  because  God  hath  from  the 
beginning  chosen  you  to  salvation.  J  .  .  .  Now  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  Himself,  and  God,  even  our 
Father,  which  hath  loved  us,  and  given  us  ever- 
lasting consolation  and  good  hope  through  grace, 
comfort  your  hearts,  and  stablish  you  in  every 
good  word  and  work.'§ 

*    1  Thess.  iii.  9,  n.     f  2  Thess.  i.  11,  12.     J  lb.  ii.  13,  17. 

§  It  is  not  merely  the  outward  progress  of  Gcd's  kingdom  in  the 
world,  but  still  more  its  inward  progress  in  the  heart,  vhich  in  rich 
detail  is  the  subject  of  St.  Paul's  prayer  and  praise.  Thus  to  refer 
only  to  passages  not  quoted  above,  he  asks  for  others,  that  they  may 
have  peace  (  2  Thess.  iii.  1  6),  hope  (Rom.  xv.  13),  patience  (2  Thess. 
iii.  5),  safety  (lb.  v.  23),  strength  (Col.  i.  1 1),  love,  holiness  and  stead- 
fastness (1  Thess.  iii.  12,  13),  unity  (Col.  ii.  2),  discriminating  judg- 
ment (Phil,  i,  9,  10),  spiritual  enlightenment  (Eph.  i.  18),  practical 
usefulness  (Philem.  4-6),  that  they  may  continually  make  progress 
(Phil.  i.  9),  that  they  may  not  cause  others  to  stumble  (lb.  10),  that 


238  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

These  detached  points,  thus  thrown  together, 
form  a  poor  summary  of  the  characteristics  of  the 
prayer  and  praise  of  the  Apostle  Paul.  But  some 
may  be  induced  to  study  this  subject  for  them- 
selves more  closely  than  they  have  hitherto  done. 
Unless  this  subject  is  well  studied,  our  notion  of 
St.  Paul's  character  will  be  altogether  incomplete. 
That  man  who  was  so  sagacious  and  discreet,  so 
adroit  in  emergencies,  so  tender  in  sympathy,  so 
warm  in  personal  friendship,  so  stern  in  his  sense 
of  duty,  so  delicately  considerate  of  the  con- 
sciences of  others,  still  we  do  not  reach  his  true 
life  till  we  see  him  where  we  have  seen  him  to-day 
— till  we  see  him  in  that  devotional  experience, 
which  has  been  reproduced,  more  or  less,  according 

they  may  be  perfect  (2  Cor.  xiii.  7,  9  ;) — and  Epaphras  prays  in  like 
manner  (Col.  iv.  12),  the  love  of  Christ  being  the  central  blessing 
on  which  all  these  other  blessings  depend  (Eph.  iii.  17).  And  as  I 
began  (p.  205)  by  noticing  the  opening  salutations  of  the  Epistles,  I 
may  end  by  noticing  the  benedictions  with  which  they  conclude,  as 
Rom.  xv.  33  ;  xvi.  20,  24,  25-27,  but  especially  Eph.  vi.  23  ('  Peace 
be  to  the  brethren,  and  love  with  faith  '),  and  2  Cor.  xiii.  14,  the 
perpetual  treasure  of  the  Church  in  public  and  domestic  wor- 
ship. 


THANKSGIVING    AND    PRAYER.  239 

to   the   measure   of   God's   grace,    in    every   true 
Christian  ever  since. 

Studying  thus  the  devotional  side  of  St.  Paul's 
character,  we  may  hope  to  imitate  it.  You,  whose 
habits  are  in  process  of  formation,  and  none  the 
less  surely  because  you  do  not  perceive  their 
gradual  growth,  take  into  serious  consideration 
this  subject  of  daily  private  prayer.  What  you 
become  now  in  that  respect  you  will  very  probably 
remain  through  life.  Facilility  of  prayer  in 
emergencies  depends  on  the  habit  of  prayer  at  set 
times.  And  habit,  at  least  at  the  outset,  implies 
self-discipline  and  ride.  I  imagine  you  have  ad- 
vantages here  which  exist  nowhere  else,  for  settling 
and  establishing  this  part  of  Christian  character. 
You  are  free  from  those  inevitable  disturbances 
of  mere  boyhood  which  you  well  remember.  You 
know  not  yet  the  crushing  cares  of  mature  life,  or 
its  incessant  demands  on  precious  time.  You  can 
secure  as  much  privacy  as  you  really  wish.  Oh  ! 
if  all  the  chambers  in  all  these  colleges  were  (as 
some    of    them    are)     places    of     private     daily 


24O  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

prayer,  how  strong,  in  the  years  that  are 
coming,  would  England  be,  and  the  Church  of 
England  ! 

And  lest  by  possibility  I  should  seem  to  be 
urging  what  is  burdensome  or  gloomy,  remem- 
ber how  the  Apostle  unites  thanksgiving  with 
prayer,  and  how  often  his  prayer  takes  the  form 
of  intercession.  Prayer  is  not  easy.  It  is  '  when  we 
have  entered  into  our  closet  and  shut  to  our 
door/*  it  is  then  that  the  difficulty  begins.  But 
sometimes  the  thought  of  others  unlocks  the  heart, 
when  it  seems  as  if  we  could  not  pray  for  our- 
selves. While  interceding  for  them,  we  find  that 
we  have  drawn  near  to  that  Saviour  from  whom 
our  hardness  appeared  to  separate  us  to  an  infinite 
distance.  And  as  to  the  spirit  of  thankfulness, 
how  easy  it  makes  every  task,  how  it  turns  every- 
thing to  gold,  how  it  spreads  like  light  through  aX 
the  details  of  life !  And  who  have  so  much 
reason  to  be  thankful  to  God  as  you  ?  How  manv 
would  be  glad  to  be  again   what  you  are  now  ! 

*  Matt.  vi.  6. 


THANKSGIVING    AND    PRAYER.  24I 

Count  up  your  blessings  in  silence,  till  you  have 
reckoned  them  all,  if  you  can ;  and  then  you  will 
never  be  weary  of  exclaiming  with  David,  '  that 
great  master  of  thanksgiving/  { Bless  the  Lord,  O 
my  soul ;  and  all  that  is  within  me,  bless  His  holy 
name.  Bless  the  Lord,  O  my  soul,  and  forget  not 
all  His  benefits/* 

The  course  of  thought  into  which  I  have  fallen 
here,  as  also  in  the  preceding  Lecture,  has  had  re- 
ference to  points  of  practical  religion  quite  as 
much  as  to  the  difficulties  of  Scripture  or  the 
evidences  of  the  Christian  religion.  But  it  was 
not  easy,  in  preaching  on  the  Sundays  in  Cam- 
bridge, to  forget  old  associations,  or  to  forget  who 
they  are  that  constitute  a  considerable  part  of  the 
congregation.  Nor  do  I  think  the  older  members 
of  the  University  will  blame  me  for  urging  those 
lessons  which  the  experience  of  recent  years, 
blended  with  recollections  of  the  past,  has  most 
deeply  impressed  on  my  mind.  Besides  this,  as 
was  hinted  in  the  first  Lecture,  a  complete  treat- 

*  Ps.  ciii.  1,  2. 

R 


242  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

merit  of  apologetic  subjects  requires  a  fuller  elabo- 
ration than  is  possible  here,  and,  for  many  reasons, 
is  more  suitable  for  the  press  than  the  pulpit.  Yet 
I  would  not  forget  (nor  have  I  ever  forgotten)  that 
the  main  purpose  of  the  endowment,  under  the 
provisions  of  which  I  have  been  speaking,  ?'s  apolo- 
getic. I  will  therefore,  in  a  very  few  concluding* 
words,  indicate  the  general  results  which  I  believe 
would  be  attained  if  full  justice  were  done  to  the 
subject,  some  aspects  of  which  I  have  endeavoured 
to  exhibit. 

It  should  be  observed,  then,  how,  in  describing 
those  features  of  St.  Paul's  character  which  have 
been  under  consideration,  how  easily  and  without 
effort  we  pass  from  one  document  to  another  in 
the  New  Testament,  and  find  our  illustrations  in 
all  of  them.  This  kind  of  delicate  and  unde- 
signed interlinking  of  the  Acts  with  the  Epistles 
and  of  the  Epistles  with  one  another,  is,  I  venture 

*  This  conclusion  is  left  in  the  Sermon  as  it  was  originally 
preached,  though  its  natural  place  now  wculd  be  at  the  close  of  the 
fifth  Sermon. 


THANKSGIVING    AND    PRAYER.  243 

to  think,  an  evidence  of  very  peculiar  value.  No 
doubt  it  is  connected  with  an  old  line  of  argument, 
very  familiar  here  from  its  association  with  one 
eminent  name  of  the  University.*  But,  because 
familiar,  it  ought  not  be  despised.  Certainly  it  is 
not  worthy  of  the  somewhat  slighting  remarks 
with  which  it  has  occasionally  been  treated. f  On 
the  contrary,  this  mine  (so  well  worked  in  some 
of  its  parts)  is  by  no  means  yet  exhausted ;  nor 
am  I  aware  that  the  narrow  vein  (narrow  but  yet 
golden)  which  relates  simply  to  St.  Paul's  personal 
character,  has  ever  been  closely  and  minutely  pur- 

#  The  allusion  is,  of  course,  to  Paley's  '  Horse  Paulinae  : '  nor 
ought  we  to  forget  other  Cambridge  men,  who  have  trodden  so  well 
in  Paley's  steps — Professor  Blunt,  in  his  'Undesigned  Coincidences,' 
and  Professor  Birks,  in  his '  Horae  Apostolicae.' 

t  It  is,  doubtless,  true  that  there  are  modern  difficulties  which  the 
'  Horae  Paulinae  '  fail  to  meet ;  but  pain  is  caused  by  the  deprecia- 
ting tone  in  which  Professor  Jowett  speaks  of  a  book  to  which  the 
Church  of  Christ  owes  so  much;  and  few  will  agree  with  him  in 
thinking  that  '  the  clearness  of  Paley's  style  gives  him  a  fallacious 
advantage  with  the  reader '  (Jowett  on  the  '  Thessalonians,'  i.  p.  109). 
On  the  other  hand,  what  is  said  at  the  close  of  the  Essay  of  the 
*  strong  and  deep  evidence  derived  from  the  style  and  character  of 
Epistles  which  in  almost  every  verse  recall  the  manner  of  the 
Apostle '  (p.  130),  is  most  true  and  important. 

R   % 


244  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

sued.  Besides  this,  there  is  controversy  still, 
even  on  this  very  ground.  Those  who  are  ac- 
quainted with  the  byways  of  modern  theological 
speculation  are  aware  that  discrepancies  between 
the  Acts  and  Epistles — in  matters  of  fact,  in  tone 
of  feeding,  in  religious  doctrine  —  are  indirectly 
hinted  or  confidently  asserted ;  that  the  authenti- 
city of  some  Epistles  is  questioned  or  denied  ;  and 
that  there  are  two  or  three  theories  (not  very  con- 
sistent, it  is  true,  with  one  another)  which  ascribe 
some  kind  of  partisan  tendency  even  to  the  Acts. 
In  this  kind  of  conflict  there  is  some  advantage  in 
securing  even  a  minor  point.  In  a  great  battle  it 
often  happens  that  small  positions  have  much  im- 
portance. Thus  the  humble  theological  student — 
leaving  the  main  responsibility  to  others,  who  are 
fit  for  the  higher  commands  and  have  a  wider 
view  of  the  whole  field — may  be  usefully  occupied 
in  patiently  defending  some  such  secondary  post. 
If  in  the  least  degree  it  is  made  more  difficult  to  dis- 
lodge the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians  from  th2  general 
body  of  St.  Paul's  letters — or  if  one  argument  is 


THANKSGIVING    AND    PRAYER.  245 

added  to  those  which  establish  that  the  Pastoral 
Epistles  are  undoubtedly  his  —  or  if  the  unity, 
honesty,  and  simplicity  of  St.  Luke's  narrative  are 
brought,  in  one  single  particular,  more  clearly  to 
view — even  this  (the  Gospel  being  wrhat  it  is)  de- 
serves the  labour  of  half  a  life/* 

But  again,  in  proportion  as  this  result  is  at- 
tained, another  result  almost  certainly  follows. 
Not  only  is  the  character  self-consistent,  but  it  is 
a  character  very  definitely  and  strongly  marked. 
Early  Christianity  is  embodied  in  St.  Paul  :  and 
who  can  believe  that  this  living  man,  in  whole  or 
in  part,  is  the  mere  personification  of  the  vague 
thoughts  that  were  moving  at  a  particular  period 
in  the  Jewish  mind?  Moreover,  I  think  that  this 
consistent  character,  which  we  have  traced  through- 
out,  exhibits  a  different  ideal  from  that  which  mere 
tradition  would  have  created  as  the  representation  of 
a  great  religious  teacher.      We  might  indeed  con- 

*  Some  slight  remarks  are  made  above  (Lect.  III.  pp  146,  147)  on 
the  Pastoral  Epistles,  and  (Lect.  IV.  pp.  208,  209)  on  the  Epistle  to 
the  Ephesians. 


246  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

ceive  (assuming  the  traditional  hypothesis)  that 
the  idealising  process  aimed  unconsciously  at  pic- 
turing some  follower  of  the  ideal  Jesus  Christ  who 
should  be  like  that  ideal  Jesus  Christ.  But  then 
the  likeness  between  Paul  and  Jesus  is  not  close 
enough.  Again,  on  the  same  assumption,  if  tra- 
dition could  have  originally  produced  an  ideal  such 
as  Jesus  Christ,  it  would  be  a  heavy  tax  on  the 
resources  of  mythology  to  produce  Paid  in  succes- 
sion to  Jesus  *  I  am  not  aware  that  any  one.  has 
conceived  of  the  growth  of  Christianity  exactly  in 
this,  way  :  but  I  imagine  the  other  alternative  is 
still  more  impossible,  viz.,  a  literal  Paul  in  succes- 

*  In  reference  to  such  a  picture  as  that  which  is  presented  in 
Renan's  '  Vie  de  Jesus,'  this  simple  remark  may  be  made  with  truth 
and  with  force,  that  the  difficulty  of  confuting  the  faith  of  Christians  in 
Jesus  Christ  is  far  more  than  doubled  by  the  fact  that  St.  Paul  must 
be  overthrown  also.  If  Jesus  stood  alone,  and  if  we  had  nothing 
but  the  Gospels  in  the  New  Testament,  there  might  be  some  show 
of  reason  in  presenting  His  biography  as  an  Idyll  of  Palestine.  But 
Christ  stands  before  us  in  combination  with  Christianity ;  and  not 
only  is  He  surrounded  by  personal  loving  fiiends,  but  He  is  followed 
in  close  succession  by  St.  Paul,  the  sample  of  all  those  who  through 
ages  since  have  drawn  their  strength  from  Him,  and  proved  that  their 
faith  was  not  a  delusion. 


THANKSGIVING    AND    PRAYER.  247 

sion  to  a  mythical  Christ,  in  the  short  interval 
between  the  death  of  Tiberius  and  the  accession  of 
Nero.  Thus  the  character  of  St.  Paul,  as  dis- 
coverable from  the  New  Testament,  remains  a 
strong  argument  to  show  that  New  Testament 
Christianity  cannot  have  grown  and  casually  taken 
shape  by  the  vague  process  of  an  uncertain  tra- 
dition. 

And  as  to  the  character  itself- — when  fairly 
looked  at — irrespective  of  all  questions  of  criticism 
or  chronology,  it  is  in  its  own  peculiarity  an 
evidence  of  the  Divine  origin  of  our  Religion, 
and  very  mainly  because  it  is  a  testimony  to 
Christ.  e  Not  Paul  but  Jesus,'*  in  one  most 
practical  sense,  is  the  lesson  which  we  learn  from 
studying  the  character  of  Paul.  It  is  evidently  an 
honest  character  :  and  the  account  which  it  gives 
of  itself  is   that    its   whole   strength   and  force  is 

*  See  note  above  (p.  200),  on  the  book  which  was  published  with 
this  title.  It  is  not  worth  while  to  refer  to  it  further.  And  the  only- 
advantage  in  recurring  to  it  at  all  is,  that  sometimes  in  digging  up 
the  grave  of  an  old  attack  on  the  Faith,  we  may  find  weapons  useful 
in  repelling  the  new  attacks. 


248  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

drawn  from  the  Divine  life  in  Jesus.  Its  unequi- 
vocal lesson  is — not  simply  this,  '  Follow  me,  as  I 
follow  Christ '  * — but  a  deeper  lesson  still, (  To  me 
to  live  is  Christ.^ 

Such  studies  as  these,  whether  on  the  smaller  or 
larger  scale — studies,  I  mean,  which  are  directed 
to  the  defence  of  our  Holy  Religion — ought,  for 
the  good  of  the  Church  at  large  and  the  safety  of 
the  future,  to  be  prosecuted  here  in  Cambridge, 
reverently,  patiently,  honestly,  with  prayer  for 
Divine  light,  and  with  grateful  thanks  for  the 
opportunity  of  so  glorious  a  service.  This  appeal 
is  not  to  those  members  of  the  University  who 
are  here  for  a  short  time  and  must  soon  depart, 
but  to  the  residents.  And  it  is  an  appeal,  very 
respectfully,  but  very  seriously  made.  Those  who 
enter  on  the  study  of  grave  and  difficult  subjects, 
in  parishes  and  schools,  amidst  crowded  popula- 
tions, must  be  content  to  gather  up  such  frag- 
ments as  they  can,  in  scanty  intervals  of  broken 
time.       Here,    on    the    other    hand,    are    ample 

*  1  Cor.  xi.  1.         t  Phil-  '•  **• 


THANKSGIVING    AND    PRAYER.  249 

leisure,  store  of  books,  exact  scholarship,  critical 
judgment,  habits  of  clear  and  accurate  thought, 
and  the  abiding  memory  of  past  defenders  of  the 
Faith.  These  are  among  God's  best  gifts,  gra- 
ciously bestowed  —  not  for  the  luxury  of  mere 
accomplishments,  not  that  criticism  may  be  its 
own  poor  satisfaction  ;  but  that  strength  may  go 
out  from  hence  to  all  parts  of  the  nation,  and 
that  helpful  work  may  be  done  on  behalf  of  ''the 
doctrine  and  discipline  of  Christ,  as  this  Church 
and  Realm  hath  received  the  same/  Every  bond 
is  precious  which  binds  the  Universities  more 
closely  with  our  seats  of  productive  industry  and 
restless  thought :  how  much  more  when  the  bond 
is  that  of  Christian  charity  and  faith — the  bond 
which,  even  in  reference  to  the  relief  of  temporal 
distress,  called  forth  from  St.  Paul  such  words  as 
these : — '  The  administration  of  this  service  not 
only  supplieth  the  want  of  the  saints,  but  is 
abundant  also  by  many  thanksgivings  unto  God; 
whiles  by  the  experiment  of  this  ministration 
they   glorify    God    for   your    professed    subjection 


250  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

unto  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  and  for  your  liberal 
distribution  .  .  .  and  by  their  prayer  for 
you.  Thanks  be  unto  God  for  His  unspeakable 
gift ! ;* 

•  2  Cor.  ix.  1  a. 


LECTURE  V. 
COURAGE    AND    PERSEVERANCE. 


Diese  Starke  der  Seele  gehort  unter  die  wichtigsten  Zuge  in  dem 

Bilde   unsers  Apostels So  bald   Paulus   Ueberzeugung  von 

der  Wahrheit  hat,  so  ist  er  stark  genug,  sein  ganzes  bisheriges 
System  vor  sich  ruhig  verschwinden  zu  sehen,  seine  ungegriindeten 
Ideen  von  Eifer  fur  Gott  aufzugeben,  und  mit  Schnelligkeit  (einem 
wichtigen  Charakter  grosser  Thaten)  nun  als  Christ  zu  handeln 
(Gal.  i.  15,  16.).  .  .  .  Doch  die  Dauer,  das   Anhaltetuie  bestimmt 

eigentlich    den    wahien    Werth    der    Geistesstdrke Wie 

wenige  haben  die  Stetigkeit  es  auszuhalten,  und,  es  werde  so  lang 
als  es  wolle,  dennoch  fortzuarbeiten,  bis  der  Zweck  erreicht  wird, 
weil  der  Zweck  gut  und  gross  ist.  Aber  Paulus  hat  sie.  Wcder 
die  Lange  der  Zeit,  noch   das  oft  vergebliche   Hoffen   der  Friichte 

seiner  Unternehmung,  machen  ihn  muthlos Und  dennoch 

behalt  der  grosse  Mann  immer  jene  Lebhaftigkeit,  damit  wir  ihn 
bisher  handeln  sahen.  Je  langer  er  fur  die  Ehre  Jesu  arbeitet, 
desto  mehr  wachst  der  Eifer  mehr  dafiir  zu  thun ;  je  langsamere 
Schritte  er  thun  kann,  desto  mehr  verdoppelt  er  seine  Kiafte,  weiter 
zu  kommen  ;  der  Kaltsinn  seiner  Zuhdrer  macht  ihn  nicht  muthlos 
gegen  sie,  sondern  aufmerksamer  auf  sich,  sorgfaltiger  in  der  Bear- 
beitung  ihrer  Herzen,  deutlicher  im  Vortrage  der  christlichen  Lehre, 
eifriger  im  Gebet  fur  sie,  und  fester  im  Vertrauen  auf  den,  der  ihn 
gesendet  hat. 

A,  H.  Niemeyer. 


COURAGE  AND  PERSEVERANCE. 


"  Then  Paul  answered, — What  mean  ye  to  weep  and  to  break  mine  heart? 
for  I  am  ready,  not  to  be  bound  only,  but  also  to  die  at  Jerusalem  for  the 
name  of  the  Lord  Jesus" — Acts  xxi.  13. 


Four  Sermons,  which  I  was  appointed  to  preach 
at  the  beginning  of  the  present  academical  year, 
were  an  attempt  to  illustrate  four  features  of  the 
character  of  the  Apostle  Paul.  This  Sermon, 
preached  in  the  necessary  absence  of  one  who, 
from  dignity  of  station  and  solid  learning,  has  a 
far  better  claim  to  be  listened  to  with  attention,* 
is    an    opportunity   which    I    gladly    embrace    for 

*  The  Dean  of  Exeter,  Dr.  Ellico't,  had  been  appointed  Select 
Preacher  for  the  Fifth  Sunday  after  Easter ;  but  on  being  made 
Bishop  of  Gloucester  and  Bristol,  he  resigned  this  day  in  my  favour. 
This  Sermon  was  preached  in  King's  College  Chapel,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  alterations  then  in  progress  at  St.  Mary's. 


254  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

adding  a  few  more  lines  to  that  imperfect  picture. 
And  the  occasion,  is  none  the  less  welcome,  be- 
cause I  am  directed  to-day  to  ask  your  alms  for 
the  Hospital  which  is  closely  connected  with  the 
University.*  I  see  nothing  incongruous  in  con- 
necting this  subject  with  the  personal  life  of  St. 
Paul,  who  himself  suffered  much  from  sickness — 
who  knew  from  experience  how  to  sympathise 
with  suffering — whose  own  health  (I  am  almost 
persuaded)  owed  something  to  the  medical  skill, f 
as  his  comfort  owed  much  to  the  friendship,  and 
the  record  of  his  life  owes  everything  to  the  pen, 
'  of  Luke,  the  beloved  physican.'J 

*  This  Sunday  was  chosen  for  the  collection  made  every  year  for 
Addenbrooke's  Hospital,  after  some  University  sermon. 

f  See  above,  Lecture  II.  p.  90,  and  '  The  Companions  of  St. 
Paul'  :  St.  Luke.  Whatever  opinion  we  may  form  as  to  an 
earlier  acquaintance  of  St.  Paul  and  St.  Luke,  it  cannot  be  doubted 
that  they  joined  company  at  the  time  and  place  noticed  in  Acts  xvi. 
10.  And  this  was  just  after  the  sojourn  in  Galatia  alluded  to  in 
Gal.  iv.  13,  where  it  is  expressly  said  that  sickness  detained  St.  Paul. 
And  again,  to  refer  to  what  occurred  many  years  later,  it  is  after 
the  long  imprisonment  at  Caesarea,  and  the  fatigue  of  the  voyage, 
that  we  find  the  presence  of  St.  Luke,  '  the  physician,'  so  affection- 
ately mentioned.     Col.  iv.  14. 

J  Col.  iv.  14. 


COURAGE    AND    PERSEVERANCE.  255 

The  subject  of  the  first  Sermon  was  the 
Apostle's  Tact  and  Presence  of  M'md.  This 
characteristic,  no  doubt  (in  great  measure,  at 
least),  came  with  him  into  the  world,  or  was  due 
to  his  early  education.  Much  of  it  would  have 
been  displayed  if  he  had  never  become  a  Chris- 
tian. So  far  it  was  a  human  tendency,  sanctified 
and  controlled  afterwards  by  grace  from  heaven. 
Yet  this  very  tact,  this  presence  of  mind  itself,  as 
we  see  it  in  the  converted  Apostle,  must  partly 
have  sprung  from  a  deeper  and  purer  source  than 
anything  merely  natural.  Thus  the  transition  is 
easy  to  the  subject  of  the  second  Sermon,  which 
related  to  the  Tenderness  and  Sympathy  of  St.  Paul. 
That  characteristic — ranging,  as  it  does,  from  a 
very  delicate  and  minute  courtesy,  through  all  the 
shades  of  considerate  forbearance,  to  the  depth 
and  intensity  of  the  most  passionate  affection — 
seems  to  bring  us  peculiarly  near -to  him;  and  in 
discussing  it  some  considerable  stress  was  laid  on 
his  weakness  :  nor  is  his  own  evident  authority 
wanting  for  doing  this  literally.     Yet,  in  speaking 


2j6  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 


of  this  Apostle,  the  word  l  weakness '  is  not  to  be 
used  lightly,  or  without  explanation  and  limita- 
tion. And  we  soon  naturally  turn  to  some  of  the 
stronger  sides  of  his  character.  Our  next  sub- 
ject, then,  was  his  Conscientiousness  and  Integrity. 
Here  we  are  on  distinctly  moral  ground — whether 
we  look  with  him  over  the  whole  breadth  of  the 
Divine  principle  involved  in  that  phrase  '  good 
conscience' — or  follow  him  into  the  details  of 
human  practice  which  are  connected  with  money, 
or  consider  what  he  says  concerning  careful  regard 
for  the  consciences  of  others — or  listen  to  his 
solemn  warning  against  trifling  with  our  least 
convictions  about  right  and  wrong.  And  then, 
from  moral  ground,  we  pass  within  the  spiritual 
sphere  when  we  come  to  the  subject  of  the  fourth 
Sermon,  which  was  Thanksgiving  and  Prayer.  We 
noticed  how  copious  in  amount,  how  incessant 
and  how  varied,  were  those  two  outpourings  of  his 
heart ;  and  especially  we  noticed  them  in  their 
combination — Thanksgiving  ever  communicating  a 
cheerful  elasticity  to  Prayer,  and  Prayer  ever  find- 


COURAGE    AND    PERSEVERANCE.         257 

ing  new  cause  for  Thanksgiving.  Nowhere' is  St. 
Paul  a  more  practical,  more  encouraging  example. 
Much,  of  course,  still  remains  to  be  said  on  this 
complicated,  yet  harmonious,  character  :  and 
especially  it  seems  as  if  some  darker  and 
stronger  shades  were  required,  to  make  previous 
impressions  complete  and  correct.  T  believe 
nothing  would  be  more  to  the  purpose,  and  more 
practically  useful,  than  what  may  be  summed  up, 
in  the  fifth  place,  under  the  head  of  Courage  and 
Perseverance. 

I  purposely  and  carefully  here  add  Perseverance 
to  Courage  :  for  that  is  a  far  higher  moral  quality, 
and  a  far  more  useful  quality,  than  this.  It  is 
also  more  intimately  connected  with  religious 
experience,  more  distinctively  the  fruit  of  Chris- 
tian life.  Mere  courage,  even  if  it  be  heroic  after 
the  human  standard,  often  evaporates  under  slow 
discouragement.  But  perseverance  under  dis- 
couragement —  the  steady  struggling  onward 
through  hours  of  weakness — the  rising  upwards 
still  above  all  doubt  and  fear — the  eye  fixed   on 

s 


2jB  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 


the  coming  light  in  the  midst  of  darkness  and 
perplexity — the  hard  work  continued  notwith- 
standing opposition,  distrust,  disappointment, 
failing  health — and  all  this  made  harder  by  the 
bitter  consciousness  of  sin,  and  by  inward  tempta- 
tions which  no  one  can  fully  understand  but  the 
tempted  man  himself — this  holy  tenacity  of  pur- 
pose is  what  we  need,  my  brethren,  in  this  life  of 
cloud  and  conflict,  as  much  as  anything  in  the 
world  :  and  of  this  holy  tenacity  the  Apostle  Paul 
is  an  eminent  example. 

Yet  courage  (and  even  courage  in  its  lowest 
form  of  mere  physical  bravery)  is  not  to  be  left 
out  in  our  estimate  of  this  Apostle.  Where  this 
feature  is  found,  if  not  in  itself  of  great  value 
and  importance,  it  yet  marks  the  man,  and 
modifies  the  impression  derived  from  all  his  other 
features.  And  possibly  our  first  superficial  notion 
would  be  that  courage  of  the  fighting  kind  was  one 
of  Paul's  natural  characteristics.  I  would  not  ab- 
solutely deny  that  this  may  have  been.  But  as  to 
our  first  acquaintance  with  Saul  of  Tarsus,*  there 

*  Acts  vii.  58. 


COURAGE    AND    PERSEVERANCE.  259 

is  this  to  be  said,  that  it  is  not  necessarily  the 
mark  of  a  brave  man  to  lay  a  willing  hand  on  the 
hilt  of  the  persecutor's  sword,  or  to  rejoice  when 
the  enemy  of  his  party  lies  dead  at  his  feet.  And 
as  to  the  impression  which  might  be  derived  from 
later  passages  in  his  life — his  behaviour  on  the 
stairs  of  the  Temple,*  or  during  the  storm  at  sea,f 
or  when  he  desired  to  rush  into  the  theatre  at 
Ephesus.J  or  when  he  sang  praises  in  the  prison  at 
Philippi§ — we  must  remember  that,  on  the  first 
occasion,  he  was  under  the  protection  of  Roman 
soldiers, ||  that  on  the  second  a  supernatural  inti- 
mation had  at  least  helped  the  courage  which  gave 
strength  and  hope  to  those  who  were  with  him  in 
the  ship  :  **  so,  in  the  third  case,  the  movement 

*  Acts  xxi.  xxii.     f  lb.  xxvii.     X  lb.  xix.  30,  31.    §  lb.  xvi.  25. 

||  This  scene  is  used  in  the  first  Lecture  as  supplying  an  instance 
of  prompt  and  timely  self- recollection.  But  the  actual  danger  was 
past  (p.  28,  71.)  ;  and  the  sagacity,  zeal,  and  tender  feeling  shown 
here  by  the  Apostle  do  not  necessarily  imply  physical  courage. 

**  We  must  not,  indeed,  forget  or  depreciate  that  calm  and  serene 
cheerfulness  which  not  only  rose  above  the  terror  of  the  tempest, 
but  communicated  encouragement  to  the  crew,  the  soldiers,  and  the 


26o  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

might  be  the  impulse  of  a  generous  nature,  which 
does  not  count  consequences,  rather  than  a  proof 
of  habitual  physical  courage  :  nor  is  the  fourth 
instance  necessarily  a  proof  of  such  a  habit  of 
mind  ;  for  suffering  apprehended  in  prospect,  and 
suffering  actually  inflicted,  are  very  diverse  in  their 
effects  on  the  mind.  It  is  one  thing  to  be  patient 
and  even  thankful,  when  trial  is  come,  another  to 
face  it  bravely  before  it  comes.  And  at  least  we 
are  bound  to  balance  these  passages  of  St.  Paul's 
life  with  that  very  cautious  and  calculating  pru- 
dence in  avoiding  danger,  of  which  we  have 
abundant  instances  on  various  occasions.*  We 
cannot  confidently  say  that  there  was  in  Paul  any 
lack  of  physical  courage.  Yet  I  doubt  how  far 
we  can  claim  him  for  one  of  those  fearless  men  of 
heroic  mould  whom  it  is  our  natural  propensity  to 
admire.     The  mode  in  which  he  gives  a  list  of  his 

passengers ;  but,  in  the  presence  of  a  distinct  supernatural  revela- 
tion, we  are  unable  to  refer  all  this  to  a  mere  natural  quality  of  mind. 
See  Lect.  I.  p.  12. 

*  As  for  instance,  at  Iconium  (Acts  xiv.  6),  Lystra  (ib.  2o),Thes- 
salonica  fcvii.  10),  and  Bercea  (ib.  14). 


COURAGE    AND    PERSEVERANCE.  2,6l 

sufferings  (to  quote  no  other  passage),  in  the 
Second  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians  (certainly  no 
light  catalogue),  seems  to  me  to  imply  a  consider- 
able shrinking  of  the  flesh  from  danger  and  from 
pain.*  Such  a  view  at  least  (this  you  will  admit) 
is  very  consoling  to  us  in  our  weak  wincing  under 
infinitely  smaller  trials  and  conflicts. 

However  this  may  be,  there  is  one  consistent 
feature  of  the  Apostle  that  may  fitly  be  classed 
under  this  head,  or  at  least  mentioned  here  as  well 
as  anywhere  else.  I  mean  a  certain  (almost  pas- 
sionate) eagerness  of  character,  alike  conspicuous 
before  and  after  his  conversion.  The  fiery'  vehe- 
mence with  which  St.  Luke  describes  him  as 
entering  into  the  work  of  persecuting  the  Chris- 
tiansf — confirmed  as  it  is  by  his  own  account  of 
what  he  was  at  that  period  J — the  struggling  to  give 
vent  to  the  passion  of  which  he  was  full  § — may 

*  Nor  is  his  language  in  the  First  Epistle — '  1  die  daily '  (xv. 
31) — quite  in  harmony  with  the  idea  of  an  utteily  fearless  man. 
See  what  is  said  in  Lect.  II.  p.  97,  on  St.  Paul's  liability  to 
fear. 

f  Acts  ix.  1.         J  lb.  xxvi.  11.  §   lb.  ix.  1.    See  xxvi.  ii. 


26^  THE    CHARACTER     OF    ST    PAUL. 

well  be  compared  with  the  impetuosity  which 
reveals  itself  afterwards  in  sundry  passages  of  his 
life.  We  see  it  at  Lystra,  in  the  indignant  hor- 
ror with  which  he  springs  out  *  to  check  the  poor 
Heathens  who  were  intending  to  worship  him  :  f 
for  clearly  it  is  Paul  who  gives  the  life  and  anima- 
tion to  the  scene.  We  see  it  in  the  hasty  reply, 
long  afterwards,  to  the  High  Priest,  when  he  was 
smitten  on  the  mouth. J  We  see  it  in  his  style — 
in  the  impassioned  exclamations  of  the  Epistle  to 
the  Romans— in  the  alternating  rebukes  and  in- 
treaties  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians — in  the 
currents  of  thought  and  feelino-  which  run  into 
one  another,  like  mountain-streams  mingling,  in 
the  Second  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians.  No  doubt 
there  was  a  change  between  the  unconverted  and 
the  converted  man.     We  must  never  lose  sight  of 

*  The  true  reading  is  e|e7r^577<xcu\ 

f  Acts  xiv.  14. 

X  Acts  xxiii.  3.  See  above,  in  Lect.  I.  p.  16.  To  these  instances 
we  must  add  the  Apostle's  desire  to  go  into  the  Ephesian  theatre 
(xix.  30),  which,  as  has  been  observed,  is  indicative  rather  of  generous 
impulse  than  of  deliberate  courrtge. 


COURAGE    AND    PERSEVERANCE.  2,6$ 

that  inward  revelation  at  Damascus,  with  its  deep 
humiliation,  its  utter  crushing  of  pride,  and  its 
softening  and  subduing  power — that  critical  point 
in  the  biography  of  Saul  of  Tarsus  on  which  the 
old  Hymn- writers,  with  a  true  instinct,  delight  to 
dwell.  Yet,  if  he  woke  after  the  '  three  days '  *  a 
different  man,  he  was  still  the  same  man.  Much 
of  SauPs  natural  impatience  (I  must  correct  this 
word  afterwards)  was  carried  onward  into  the  re- 
newed life  of  Paul.  After  his  conversion,  as  be- 
fore, he  was  thoroughly  in  earnest,  he  acted  out 
his  principles  to  the  full,  he  threw  his  whole  heart 
into  his  cause.  He  was  as  ready  to  die  for  others 
now,  as  he  was  to  murder  them  before.  He  had 
ever  that  warm,  eager,  and  enthusiastic  zeal  which 
in  itself  may  be  somewhat  negative  in  moral 
worth,  but  which  is  infinitely  important  when 
good  work  is  to  be  done  in  the  midst  of  difficulty 
and  opposition. j- 

*  De  Pressense  exclaims  truly  (p.  2Zi),  '  Ces  trois  jours  de 
Damas,  ils  n'ont  que  trop  manque  a  notre  christianisme.  Nous  ne 
sommes  pas  forts,  parce  que  nous  ne  sommes  pas  assez  affaiblis. 
See  above,  p.  zzz. 

f  In  reference  to  this  part  of  St.  Paul's  character,  it  is  worth 


264  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

And  if  in  general  terms  we  can  mark  this  zeal 
through  all  his  life,  one  particular  form  of  it  is  to 
be  traced  both  early  and  late.*  His  going  to  the 
High  Priest,  to  ask  for  sanction  and  authority  for 
prosecution,  is  a  mark  of  zeal.  His  pursuing  the 
Christians  to  various  distant  places  is  something 
more.f  That  is  a  mark  of  missionary  enterprise. 
We  read  that  he  persecuted  them  in  '  all  syna- 
gogues/ and  that  he  followed  them  '  to  strange 
cities/  What  cities  these  may  have  been — 
Caesarea,  Antioch,  Alexandria,  Petra — we  cannot 
say  :  but  it  seems  as  though  the  journey  to  Da- 
mascus were  only  a  specimen — described  to  us,  of 
course,  in  detail,  for  the  consequences  which  re- 
sulted. It  was  on  a  missionary  journey,  so  to 
speak,  that  the  future  Apostle  was  met  by  his  Lord. 

while  to  compare  all  the  passages,  where  he  speaks  of  warm  devo- 
tion to  the  cause  in  hand,  either  in  the  form  of  precept  or  as  de- 
scrihing  his  own  feelings.  In  illustration  of  the  glow  and  ardour  im- 
plied in  the  term  (/rjAos,  see,  for  the  time  before  his  conversion,  Phil, 
iii.  6  ;  and,  for  the  subsequent  time,  Gal.  iv.  18.  The  use  of  Zcnvavaca 
and  iKda.1ra.vdc0,  in  2  Cor.  xii.  15,  is  a  metaphor  from  the  market. 
See  the  preceding  verse. 

*  Acts  ix.  i,  2.  f  lb-  xxvi-  XI- 


COURAGE    AND    PERSEVERANCE.  2,6$ 

It  reads  like  an  anticipation,  though  with  a  strange 
contrast,  of  all  his  future  career.  That  ea^er 
impetuosity  of  character  of  which  I  have  spoken 
ever  showed  itself  'in  journeyings  often/  in  his 
moving  from  place  to  place,  in  his  aiming  at 
populous  towns,  in  his  love  for  the  concourse  of 
men.*  Withheld  from  entering  Asia,  he  tries 
Bithynia.f  Guided  by  God's  hand  to  Philippi, 
and  suffering  J  and  triumphant  there,  he  moves  on 
to  Thessalonica,  then  to  Athens,  then  to  Corinth. § 
In  another  journey  we  find  him  in  Ephesus,  ||  the 
capital  of  that  f  Asia/  which  he  had  been  for- 
bidden to  enter  before — a2;ain  in  Macedonia — 
again  in  Greece :  till  he  could  say  (and  this  when 
only  half-way  through  his  course),  '  from  Jerusa- 
lem, and  round  about  unto  Illyricum,  I  have  fully 
preached  the  Gospel/**     Controlled  indeed  by  a 

*  2  Cor.  xi.  26.  f  Acts  xvi.  7. 

%  We  must  not  forget  his  elastic  recovery  after  great  bodily  pain, 
both  here  and  at  Lystra  (Acts  xiv.  20)  ;  but  this  was  rather  the 
union  of  tenacity  and  zeal  than  mere  physical  courage. 

§  Acts  xvi.   12,  40;  xvii.   I,  15;  xviii.  1.  ||   lb.  xix.  1. 

#*  Rom.  ,xv.  19. 


l66  THE    CHARACTER    OF     ST    PAUL. 

sense  of  consideration  for  other  Apostles,  and  not 
interfering  with  their  labours,*  he  is  ever  advanc- 
ing onwards  to  new  ground,  and  yet  (let  me  say) 
without  forgetting  the  old,  and  all  the  while  pur- 
suing one  object,  his  letters  meantime  bearing  the 
impress  of  incessant  mental  as  well  as  bodily 
activity.f     Nor  have  I  touched  the  latter  part  of 

*  For  this  consi  ierate  sense  of  what  was  due  to  others,  see  Lect. 
II.  and  compare  Gal.  ii.  9,  10.  This  union  of  considerateness  with 
eager  love  of  enterprise  is  a  point  to  be  carefully  observed. 

t  The  cheerful  activity  of  St.  Paul  is  a  characteristic  on  which  it 
is  pleasant  to  dwell.  Though  he  had  an  interminable  prospect  of 
suffering  before  him,  and  though  (humanly  speaking)  doubts  might 
very  easily  arise  as  to  whether  he  were  really  engaged  in  a  Divine 
enterprise,  yet,  as  Niemeyer  says,  there  is  no  trace  in  any  part  of  his 
Life  or  Letters  '  des  Unwillens  und  der  Unzufriedenheit.  Er  iiber- 
nahm  alle  Leiden  mit  der  grdssten  Willigkeit,  um  dem  hohen 
Vorbilde  seines  Herrn  so  ahnlich  als  moglich  zu  werden.  Nie 
schuchtem,  nie  mutblos,  nie  schmachtend  nach  Ruhe,  fan°t  er  ein 
fj'erk  nach  dem  andem  an,  das  er,  ohne  die  Bahn  des  Leidens  zu 
gehen,  nicht  ausfiihren  kann.' — P.  327.  All  this  becomes  far  more 
remark?.ble  when  we  notice  that  there  is  no  trace  of  fanaticism  in  St. 
Paul,  no  craving  for  self-imposed  troubles  and  sufferings,  no  selfwill. 
Niemeyer  adds  that,  strange  as  the  paradox  seems,  selfwill  can 
readily  incur  sufferings  which  human  nature  shudders  at,  but  that 
with  selfwill  all  the  elements  of  true  greatness  are  gone,  And  else- 
where (p.  299),  he  speaks  very  well  of  Eigensinn  as  opposed  to  all 
true  strength  of  character. 


COURAGE    AND    PERSEVERANCE.  267 

his  career — Rome,  and  the  Epistles  written  there, 
and  the  Eastern  journeys  after  his  liberation,  and 
Spain,  and  whatever  be  the  meaning  of  Clement's 
expression  concerning  '  the  limit  of  the  West.* 
It  was  a  career,  if  we  take  into  account  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  times,  quite  unexampled.*  A 
military  conqueror  at  the  head  of  large  bodies  of 
troops  is  not  to  be  mentioned  in  comparison. 
Here  was  a  solitary  soldier  with  all  the  world 
against  him,  and  with  none  of  that  moral  support 
of  numbers  which  we  have  now  (thanks  be  to 
God)  in  our  poor  efforts  to    spread   the   Gospel. f 

*  Still  more  unexampled,  if  we  take  into  account  the  motive. 
See  Stanley's  '  Corinthians,'  p.  562  : — '  Self-devotion,  at  particular 
moments  or  for  some  special  national  cause,  had  often  been  seen 
before:  but  a  self-devotion  involving  sacrifices  like  those  here  de- 
scribed (2  Cor.  xi.),  and  extending  through  a  period  of  at  least 
fourteen  years,  and  in  behalf  of  no  local  or  family  interest,  butybr 
the  interest  of  mankind  at  large,  was  up  to  this  time,  a  thing  un- 
known. .  .  .  Paul  did  all  this,  and  Paul  was  the  first  who  did  it.' 
Niemeyer  says  (p.  301),  in  reference  to  the  same  point,  that  those 
who  think  St.  Paul  was  deluded  ought  yet  to  give  him  their  highest 
admiration,  especially  as  such  persons  are  never  weary  of  praising 
efforts  directed  to  the  general  well-being  of  mankind. 

f  We  may  add  that  the  prestige  of  success  could  not  be  used  as 
an  encouragement  at  the  beginning  of  the  effort  to  Christianise  the 


268         THE     CHARACTER     OF     ST     PAUL. 

A  career  of  such  energy  and  activity  is  well  fitted 
to  lay  hold  of  the  sympathies  of  young  English- 
men. Yet  here,  too,  a  caution  is  required. 
There  is  much  to  be  combined  with  this  active 
enterprise,   before   we   have   the  whole  of  Paul's 

world.  As  Niemeyer  says  (p.  309),  many  years  had  to  pass  before 
the  progress  of  the  work  could  be  claimed  as  an  evidence ;  lapse  of 
time  often  causes  vigorous  exertions  to  languish  :  we  should  see  far 
more  good  done  in  the  world  if  only  momentary  efforts  were  re- 
quired for  the  doing  of  it. 

The  difficulties  which  lay  in  St.  Paul's  way  are  so  well  stated  by 
this  writer,  that  it  may  be  worth  while  to  give  the  substance  of 
what  he  says.  (1)  The  first  teachers  of  Christianity  were  treading 
a  path  never  trodden  by  any  one  before,  and  their  work  involved  the 
uprooting  of  habits  of  sin  and  idolatry,  and  the  dissipation  of  ideas 
acquired  in  childhood.  (2)  There  was  the  moral  corruption  of 
the  large  cities  :  the  Greeks  had  no  taste  for  moral  improvement : 
the  death  of  Socrates  had  brought  no  blessing  on  Athens.  (3) 
The  hero  of  the  Greeks  was  the  man  who  entertained  them  with 
sophistry,  and  this  was  exactly  contrary  to  the  Gospel :  Christ  cru- 
cified to  them  was  folly ;  and  besides  this,  the  miracles  of  Jesus 
were  not  related  by  an  eye-witness.  (4)  The  difficulty  of  over- 
coming the  prejudices  and  opposition  of  the  Jews  was  enormous: 
they  could  only  become  Christians  in  company  with  the  Heathen, 
and  with  the  certainty  of  their  relatives  becoming  their  enemies ; 
and,  besides  this,  they  were  banded  together  by  the  associations  of 
trade,  and  in  them  the  spirit  of  persecution  was  innate  and  heredi- 
tary.— Pp.  302-307. 


COURAGE    AND    PERSEVERANCE.  269 

character  in  our  view.  The  mere  love  of  adven- 
ture makes  a  poor  missionary.  To  Saul's  ques- 
tion, '  Lord,  what  shall  I  do  ?'  *  the  answer  was, 
'  I  will  show  him  how  much  he  shall  suffer.'-^  The 
question  arises  whether  natural  courage  and  love  of 
enterprise  are  really  so  very  essential  to  a  mission- 
ary.     Let  not   the   timid   be  deterred.      I  should 

*  Acts  xxii.  10. 

f  Acts  ix.  16.  *  Qui  sait  tout  soujfrir  pent  tout  oser1  is  a 
true  saying  which  occurs  in  one  of  Colani's  Sermons,  p.  120. 
In  these  Sermons  on  the  imprisonment  at  Caesarea  he  has 
pointed  out  very  forcibly  how  the  Apostle's  cheerful  confidence 
never  wavered,  in  spite  of  present  hindrances  and  sufferings, 
how  his  hopefulness  overlooked  all  difficulties  in  the  state  of  society, 
how  he  felt  the  West  opening  out  before  him,  and  expected  still  to 
reach  both  Ita'y  and  Spain  (pp.  1 12-1 14).  All  this  was  the  effect  of 
his  strong  convictions  ('  II  rait  de  science  certaine  qu'il  possede  la 
verite  ;  son  assurance  fait  sa  force.' — P.  103.) 

To  turn  from  one  side  of  French  theology  to  another,  from  a 
Protestant  of  t.:o  *  free '  a  school  to  a  Roman  Catholic  historian  of 
St.  Paul,  I  may  quote  part  of  what  M.  Vidal  ('  Saint  Paul,  sa  Vie 
et  ses  CEuvres,  1863)  says  of  the  Apostle's  world-embracing  zeal : — 
4  La  reunion  de  toutes  lesvertus  chretiennes  forma  cette  grandeur  de 
caractere  qui  ne  flechit  jamais  devant  aucun  obstacle,  ne  recula 
olevant  aucune  persecution,  et  compta  pour  rien  les  souffrances  et  la 
mort  (ii.  p.  397).  II  embrassait  l'univers  tout  entier  dans  son 
desir  de  l'amener  a  Jesus  Christ  (p.  402).  S'il  avait  pu  offrir  en 
sacrifice  a  Dieu  tout  l'univers,  il  l'aurait  offert;  dans  ce  dessein  il 


270  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 


expect  more  from  a  man  prepared  to  suffer  than 
from  a  man  eager  to  act.  Yet  I  would  not  here 
dwell  too  much  on  this.  Everything  in  its  right 
place  and  time.  God  grant  that  this  University- 
may  send  forth  many  missionaries — strong  in  God's 
power  if  they  are  naturally  fearful,  sensible  of 
their  own  weakness   if  they  are   naturally  brave, 

parcourait  les  mers,  il  voyageait  a  travers  l'Europe  et  l'Asie,  l'Orient 
et  1' Occident,  et  revenait  de  nouveau  de  1'Occident  en  Orient,  afin 
d'offrir  a  Dieu  les  Juifs,  les  Grecs,  les  Barbares  (p.  403).  Jl  aurait 
voulu,  comme  le  prophete  qui  se  coucha  sur  le  corps  de  1'enfant  de 
la  Sunamite  afin  de  lui  rendre  la  vie,  se  coucher  sur  l'humanite  et 
lui  inspirer  la  vie  spirituelle  :  puis,  se  relevant,  il  aurait  dit  a  Jesus 
Christ:  Voila  votre  mondechretien,  comme  le  prophete  avait  dit  a  la 
mere:  Voila,  votre  fils  vivant '  (p.  421).  The  remarks  which 
follow,  concerning  the  discretion  which  controlled  this  zeal,  remind 
us  of  what  enhances  the  value  of  the  zeal  a  hundredfold  :  '  Le 
zele  ardent  de  sa  nature  a  besoin  d'etre  contenu  par  la  prudence  ; 
s'il  n'est  pas  mesure  ni  renferme  dans  des  homes  convenables,  il 
n'echauffe  pas,  il  brule ;  il  n'ediffe  pas,  il  detruit  (p.  42c).  Or, 
d'apres  S.  Augustin,  la  prudence  est  la  science  des  choses  bonnes  ou 
mauvaises  et  indifferentes.  La  discretion  met  l'ordre  dans  toute 
vertu,  l'ordre  lui  attribue  le  mode  et  la  beaute  et  meme  la  perpe- 
tuite  (p.  423).  Maitre  de  lui-meme,  S.  Paul  moderait  son  zele; 
la  mutation  des  choses  diverses  ne  l'tntrainait  pas  danssa  changeane 
mobilite  ;  les  travaux  les  plus  accablants  ne  l'ecrasaient  pas.  II  les 
dominait  par  la  volonte  immuable.  ISkomme  patient  Vemporte  sur 
I'homme  jort '     (p.  424.) 


COURAGE    AND    PERSEVERANCE.         271 

tender  with  the  sympathy  of  Christ,  and  bearing 
with  them  the  character — and  not  only  the  cha- 
racter, but  the  doctrine — of  St.  Paul ! 

Let  us  pass  now  from  the  consideration  of 
physical  courage  to  that  of  moral  courage.  Here 
is  zeal  in  its  highest  form.  Here,  too,  the  ground 
is  clear  for  contemplating  our  Apostle  without  any 
misgivings  as  to  whether  he  is  really  an  example. 
Here,  too,  is  a  peculiarly  good  opportunity  for 
observing  the  harmonious  blending  of  the  different 
parts  of  his  character.  Thus,  true  moral  courage 
has  a  very  close  connection  both  with  tact  and 
with  tenderness.  At  least  we  hardly  give  so  good  a 
name  to  that  boldness  which  treads  rouffhlv  and 
unscrupulously,  without  regard  either  to  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  occasion  or  to  the  feelings  of 
other  men.  Then,  as  to  honesty  and  integrity,  a 
conscientious  sense  of  duty  is  the  very  basis  of 
moral  courage  ;  while  at  the  same  time  (in  a 
Christian)  this  quality  is  not  the  fruit  of  mere 
inherent  strength,  but  connects  itself  with  that 
Divine  help  which  at   every  turn  suggests  thanks- 


2*]2  THE    CHARACTER     OF    ST    PAUL. 

giving  and  prayer.  The  Apostle's  own  words  near 
the  end  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians  might  be 
an  inscription  written  for  a  motto  on  this  part  of 
our  subject.  '  Pray  for  me  always,  that  I  may- 
speak  boldly,  as  I  ought  to  speak.'* 

And  so  the  Apostle  did  speak  at  Q.A  times  of 
his  life,  not  only  judiciously,  tenderly,  honestly, 
prayerfully,  but  also  boldly.  We  trace  this  moral 
courage  in  St.  Paul  from  the  hour  of  his  conver- 
sion. Without  a  moment's  delay  he  declares  his 
change  of  faith  at  Damascus  —  braves  all  con- 
sequences f  —  faces  the  scorn  and  contempt  of 
those  with  whom  he  had  co-operated — immediately 
(as  he  says)  in  this  very  city  '  not  disobedient  to 
the  heavenjy  vision/J  but  straightway  preaching 
Christ  in  the  synagogues,  that  He  is  the  Son  of 
God,  increasing  in  strength,  confounding  the  Jews 

*  Eph.  vi.  18-20. 

t  We  are  perhaps  hardly  enough  in  the  habit  of  considering  how 
much  moral  courage  was  implied  in  the  course  taken  by  St.  Paul 
immediately  after  his  conversion.  The  miraculous  nature  of  that 
event  does  not  diminish  the  lesson  of  his  example  to  us :  and  if  it 
be  said  that  this  feature  of  his  character  was  due  to  grace,  this  re- 
minds us  where  we  are  to  look  for  the  same  strength. 

J  Acts  xxvi.  19. 


COURAGE    AND    PERSEVERANCE.  273 

that  dwelt  there,  proving  that  this  is  very  Christ:* 
and  not  only  so,  but  declaring  to  them  that  they 
must  <  repent  and  turn  to  God  and  do  works  meet 
for  repentance/f  tmis  telling  them  that  they  were 
all  in  error  in  the  very  essentials  of  religion.  So, 
on  being  driven  from  Damascus,  we  see  him  again 
at  Jerusalem,  proclaiming  himself  a  Christian  and 
'  speaking  boldly  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus/ J 
openly  '  disputing '  with  his  old  (  Hellenistic'  §  as- 
sociates— even  arguing  with  the  Almighty  in  his 
vision,  when  he  was  told  to  depart.  They  must  hear 
me  (he  thought),  for  '  they  know  that  I  imprisoned 
and  beat  in  every  synagogue  them  that  believed.' || 
And  so  on  in  other  scenes,  through  long  years,  we 
find  him  consistent  and  firm  in  resistance  to  the 
Jews — at  Antioch  in  Pisidia,  at  Thessalonica,  at 
Corinth,  finally  in    Rome.**     As    to    his    moral 

*  Acts  ix.  20,  22,  27.  The  vigour  and  even  vehemence  of  ail 
these  expressions  should  be  noticed,  as  bearing  the  impress  of  the 
man.  And  we  have  the  combined  evidence  of  Luke  and  Barnabas, 
as  well  as  of  St.  Paul  himself.     See  especially  Acts  ix.  27. 

f  Acts  xxvi.  20.  X  lb.  ix.  26. 

§  lb.  29.  ||  lb.  xxii.  19,  20. 

**  lb.  xiii.  50  ;  xvii.  5,  13  ;  xviii.  6 ;  xxviii.  25. 

T 


courage  in  encountering  the  Gentiles,  and  facing 
the  criticism  of  highly  educated  and  philosophical 
but  irreligious  minds,  we  have  only  to  think  of  the 
spirit  and  power  with  which  he  spoke  when  he 
was  at  Athens — '  at  Athens  alone,'*  as  he  says  in  a 
letter  written  soon  afterwards.  It  is  a  phrase  very 
full  of  deep  meaning.  Nor  need  I  do  more  than 
point  to  the  occasions  when  he  stood  alone  before 
persons  of  high  rank,  whether  Sergius  Paulus  or 
Felix,  or  Festus  and  Agrippa — occasions  which 
enable  us  to  picture  to  ourselvc*1  how  he  stood  and 
spoke  in  Nero's  presence,  whether  in  his  first 
imprisonment  as  referred  to  in  the  Epistle  to  the 
Philippians,  or  the  second,  where  the  final  Epistle 
to  Timothy  shows  him  to  us  in  all  the  sad  sorrow 
(in  one  sense)   of  a  disappointed   man,f  but  still 

*   i  Thess.  iii.  i. 

f  Dean  Stanley  speaks  rather  strongly  of  the  victorious  tone  of 
the  Pastoral  Epistles  '  Their  general  tone  is  one  of  calm  repose.  .  .  . 
lie  stands  almost  alone  under  the  shadow  of  impending  death;  but 
it  is  the  last  effort  of  a  defeated  and  desperate  cause :  the  victory  is 
already  gained  .  .  .  With  the  assured  conviction  that  the  object  of 
his  life  was  fully  accomplished,  he  might  well  utter  the  words  (2 
Tim.  iv.  7)  on  which  seventeen  centuries  have  now  set  their  indis- 


COURAGE    AND    PERSEVERANCE.  2J $ 

true  to  Christ  in  all  the  unflinching  courage  of  a 
solitary*  martyr. 

But  moral  courage  is  never  so  noble,  never  so 
difficulty  as  when  a  man  is  called  to  resist,  not  his 
natural  and  inevitable  opponents,  but  his  own 
friends  and  his  own  feelings.  And  in  cases  of 
this  kind  the  courage  is  the  greater,  as  the  tender- 
ness jf  heart  is  deeper  and  more  sensitive.  We 
sre  what  it  cost  St.  Paul  to  discharge  such  duties, 
when  we  read  the  Epistles  to  the  Corinthians  and 
the  Galatians.f    And  especially  is  this  sort  of  trial 

p u table  seal.'— '  Apost.  Age,'  pp.  169,  170.  This  is  no  doubt  true. 
See  below  on  this  point.  But  still  it  seems  to  me  that  there  is  in 
these  last  Epistles  an  undertone  of  sadness,  and  almost  disappoint- 
ment. And  may  we  not  say  that  there  would  have  been  something 
imperfect  in  the  record  of  St.  Paul,  if  we  had  only  the  sanguine, 
active  impression  of  the  other  Epistles,  and  no  trace  of  those  frus- 
trated hopes  which  have  been  the  experience  of  all  God's  true  ser- 
vants, whether  Prophets  and  Apostles,  or  only  workers  in  the 
common  course  of  human  history  ? 

*  We  may  compare  here  the  feeling  expressed  by  jxovoi,  in  1 
Thess.  iii.  i,and  that  expressed  by  irdires  jue  iyKariXiiTov,  in  2  Tim. 
iv.  16.  See  also  Phil,  ii.20.  Mow  emphatic  is  the  ixovutcltos, which 
the  LXX.  version  has  in  the  history  of  Elijah,  3  Kings  xix.14! 

f  See  1  Cor.  iv.  10-15;  Gal-  lv-  ll>  I2»  ,6  -°  >  2  Cor-  "•  I_4> 
vii.  8,  xi.  1 1. 

T  2 


276  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

concentrated  and  made  most  painful  when  it  be- 
comes necessary  to  oppose  individual  friends,  to 
whom  we  are  deeply  attached,  and  possibly  are 
under  great  obligations.  As  to  a  mere  fearless 
statement  of  truth  against  public  opposition,  a 
good  resistance  may  brace  even  a  weak  man  into 
some  momentary  strength.  It  is  very  different 
when  our  deeper  feelings  are  affected.  Two  en- 
counters of  that  kind  can  be  quoted  from  St. 
Paul's  biography,  both  of  which  must  have  been 
painful  to  his  considerate  and  sympathetic  nature, 
and  both  (though  in  one  of  them  he  was  possibly 
more  or  less  in  error)  were  proofs  of  his  strength 
of  principle. 

This  courage  in  opposing  friends  for  conscience' 
sake,  at  the  risk  of  losing  their  favourable  opinion, 
or  incurring  their  ridicule,  or  possibly  even  endan- 
gering the  friendship  itself,  is  peculiarly  hard  for 
young  men.  And  sometimes,  no  doubt,  young 
anen  do  make  mistakes  in  a  conscientious  resist- 
ance, and  oppose  and  stand  aloof  when  it  might 
be  better  to  yield.     Yet,  on  the  whole,  the  temp- 


COURAGE    AND    PERSEVERANCE.  2JJ 

tation  to  yield  is  far  greater  and  more  frequent. 
We  are  speaking  here,  not  of  perversity  and  self- 
will,  to  which  there  is  temptation  enough,  but  of 
a  firm  moral  attitude,  when  all  the  natural  tempta- 
tion is  the  other  way.  Let  it  at  least  be  known 
on  whose  side  you  are  in  this  mixed  scene  of 
good  and  evil.  If  there  is  any  doubt  about  this, 
something  is  wrong.  But  did  you  never  feel  the 
temptation  hard  to  resist  in  the  presence  of  an 
older  man,  who  does  not  quite  take  the  Christian 
standard  ? — or  with  a  friend  of  early  days,  with 
whom  you  know  you  ought  to  disagree  on  a  point 
of  conduct  ?  Nor  are  these  temptations  by  any 
means  confined  to  our  younger  days.  There  are 
many  men  everywhere,  and  those  not  by  any 
means  the  worst — I  suppose  there  may  be  some  in 
this  University — who  would  rather  hear  that  they 
had  been  called  men  of  good  taste  and  good 
sense,  than  that  they  had  been  described  as  having 
the  humility  and  the  simplicity  of  devout  and 
stedfast  Christians. 

The   occasions    of   St.  Paul's  resistance  to  his 


278  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

friends  are,  of  course,  that  on  which  he  opposed 
Barnabas  in  the  matter  of  Mark,  and  that  on 
which  he  opposed  Peter  on  a  question  of  religious 
truth  and  consistency.  As  to  the  former,  the 
refusal  to  take  Mark  on  a  second  missionary 
journey  after  he  had  proved  unfaithful  on  the  first, 
there  may  have  been  (as  was  just  now  observed) 
error  in  Paul  as  well  as  Barnabas ;  yet,  at  least, 
the  occasion  showed  what  the  Apostle  thought  of 
the  danger  of  a  half-hearted  allegiance  to  the. 
Gospel.  And  I  think  it  must  have  done  violence 
to  the  feelings  of  a  generous  man,  thus  to  oppose 
one  to  whose  friendship  at  a  critical  time  he  had 
owed  so  much ;  for  you  will  remember  how  when 
Paul  first  came  to  Jerusalem  as  a  Christian,  and 
the  '  disciples  were  afraid  of  him/*  —  Barnabas 
(possibly  a  friend  of  early  days)  had  taken  him  by 
the  hand,  brought  him  to  the  Apostles,  and  told 
them  '  how  he  had  seen  the  Lord,  and  preached 
boldly  at  Damascus/  As  to  the  resistance  to 
Peter  at  Antioch,  here  a  question  of  vital  doctrine 
*  Acts  ix.  26, 27. 


COURAGE    AND    PERSEVERANCE.  279 


was  involved  ;  and  this  brings  us  to  a  topic  which 
must  be  dealt  with  separately. 

In  the  first  of  these  sermons  it  was  shown  that 
the  spirit  of  compromise,  or  at  least  of  concession, 
is  evident  enough,  both  in  the  writings  and  actions 
of  the  Apostle  Paul.*  But  within  what  limits  is 
this  true  ?  The  sphere,  within  which  this  prin- 
ciple of  what  may  be  called  religions  expediency 
operates,  is  restricted  to  subjects  in  themselves 
indifferent.  On  great  vital  questions,  or  or  minor 
points  if  accidentally  they  involved  vital  questions, 
St.  Paul  never  compromised.  And  it  is  precisely 
because  he  is  so  inflexible  that  we  find  him  so 
yielding.  A  man  who  is  calmly  firm  on  the  main 
point  can  afford  to  negotiate  on  a  minor  point. 
No  doubt  we  often  feel  a  difficulty  in  drawing  the 
line  between  greater  questions  and  smaller  ques- 
tions, and  in  deciding  when  to  resist  and  when  to 
yield.  And  this  is  one  of  our  trials.  St.  Paul 
had  special  illumination   to  direct  him.      But  at 

*  See  Lect.  I.  pp.  18,  22,  33-3$,  39,  49 ;  also  Lect.  III.  pp.  176' 

178. 


28o  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

least  this  makes  it  very  incumbent  on  us  to  observe 
his  conduct  and  principles.  Never,  with  all  his 
large  and  liberal  forbearance,  is  there  any  hesita- 
tion or  uncertainty  in  regard  to  great  doctrines. 
I  find  no  symptom  in  any  of  St.  Paul's  speeches 
or  letters  of  any  such  notion  as  that  it  is  no  mat- 
ter what  a  man  believes,  so  long  as  he  is  sincere — 
no  trace  anywhere  (to  use  a  phrase  which  is  not 
uncommon  now)  of  separating  a  man's  religion 
from  his  theology.  For  instance,  as  to  whether  a 
man  can  be  justified  before  God  by  mixing  up 
anything  of  his  own  with  what  Christ  has  done 
for  him,  here  is  no  compromise.  Paul  will  do 
anything  to  conciliate  the  prejudices  of  Judaism, 
will  even  make  himself  a  Nazarite  for  the  time. 
But  still,  '  Whosoever  of  you  seeks  to  be  justified 
by  the  law,  is  fallen  from  grace  : '  *  ( If  any  man 
preach  another  gospel,  let  him  be  accursed. 'f     He 

*  Gal.  v.  4. 

+  lb.  i.  8,  9.  At  the  Council  of  Jerusalem,  St.  Paul's  firm  and 
uncompromising  though  perfectly  calm  and  moderate  attitude  (and 
this  union  marks  the  contrast  to  his  previous  violence  and  bigotry) 
helped  to  secure  a  victory  over  the  most  threatening  danger.     De 


COURAGE    AND    PERSEVERANCE.  28l 


is  firm,  too,  on  an  indifferent  point,  if  accidentally 
it  becomes  the  turning-place  of  a  serious  question. 
He  who  circumcised  Timothy  will  not  allow  Titus 
to  be  circumcised.  Whosoever  they  were  that  op- 
posed, this  made  e  no  matter '  to  him  :  he  '  gave 
place  by  subjection,  no  not  for  an  hour/*  So 
again  in  a  question  of  morals,  as  to  whether  a 
man  can  have  any  hope  of  peace  with  God  while 
he  trifles  with  conscience,  here  again  is  no  com- 
promise. (  Whatsoever  is  not  of  faith  is  sin : '  f 
'The  firm  foundation  of  God  standeth  for  ever, J 

Pressense  points  out  this  very  forcibly  (p.  321).  There  was  reason 
to  fear  that  the  cause  was  lost  at  Jerusalem  beforehand.  Paul  was 
far  better  known  there  as  a  persecutor  than  as  a  Christian.  He  was 
surrounded  by  prejudices,  with  which  his  accusers  had  many 
sympathies.  '  Malgre  tous  ces  desavantagcs,  fort  de  la  bonte  de  sa 
cause,  Paul  la  soutient  avec  autant  de  fermete  que  de  moderation 
.  .  .  II  ne  s'est  pas  decourage  un  jour,  il  n'a  jamais  faibli.  ...  II  a 
fait  triompher  ses  principes  sur  toute  la  ligne.' 

*  Gal.  ii.  5,  6.  f  Rom.  xiv.  23. 

J  'O  /xevTOL  (TTepebs  SeueAtos  rov  Qeov  e'(TT7j«e.  Habitual  metaphors 
in  a  man's  language  are  often  indications  of  character.  Thus  the 
architectural  metaphors  of  this  Apostle  (and  they  are  very  frequent) 
themselves  give  the  impression  of  steadiness  and  strength.  On 
another  class  of  his  metaphors,  expressive  of  vigour  and  progress, 
see  below,  p.  208. 


283  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

having  this  inscription,  Let  every  one  that  names 
the  name  of  Christ  depart  from  iniquity/*  In 
manner  and  in  feeling  he  is  the  most  friendly,  the 
most  modest,  the  most  courteous  of  men.  Be- 
held him  here  standing  before  Felix.  He  longs  to 
persuade  him  to  become  a  Christian.  By  gently 
persuading  him  —  by  adapting  the  Gospel  —  by 
lowering  it  a  little — might  he  not  also  gain  his 
liberty,  with  new  opportunities  of  spreading  the 
truth  ?  But  no.  '  He  reasons  of  righteousness, 
temperance,  and  judgment  to  come/f  And  what 
he  practises  himself,  he  commands  others  to  prac- 
tise on  suitable  occasions.  Though  he  advises  the 
slave  joyfully  to  accept  his  hard  condition,  and  to 
serve  God  in  the  place  where  Christianity  found 
him,  still  his  language  is  to  all,  '  Become  not  the 
slaves  of  men.'X  And  though  the  minister  of 
Christ  must  be  gentle,  forbearing,  and  consider- 
ate, yet  Titus  is  to  be  firm  and  peremptory  in  con- 
trolling the  turbulent.  'Let  no  man  despise  thee'§ 
is  his  abrupt  admonition  to  the  Cretan  bishop  : — 
*  2  Tim.  ii.  19.     f  Acts  xxiv.  25.    J  1  Cor.  vii.  23.     §  Tit.  ii.  15. 


COURAGE    AND    PERSEVERANCE.  283 


an  admonition,  doubtless,  not  to  deserve  contempt : 
but  such  injunctions,  my  brethren,  also  imply  the 
absolute  necessity  of  holding  our  ground  firmly, 
if  we  intend  to  be  true  to  the  cause  of  God  and 
of  Christ. 

Thus  far  we  have  been  engaged  in  considering 
passages  of  St.  Paul's  life  and  writings,  which  may 
be  properly  classed  under  the  head  of  courage. 
We  have  still  to  look  at  that  deeper  part  of  our 
subject,  which  I  have  described  as  perseverance  in 
spite  of  discouragement.  It  is  easy  to  be  brave 
when  we  have  success*  or  when  we  are  sanguine. 
But  when  disappointment  comes — when  we  have 
laboured  honestly  and  failed — when  dangers  and 
difficulties  are  in  prospect — when  the  sad  forebod- 
ings which  are  upon  us  press  all  the  more  heavily 
because  we  cannot  precisely  tell  what  form  the 
apprehended  evil  will  assume — when  our  distress 
of  mind  is  painfully  mixed  up  with  the  sympathy 
of  friends  —  when  fatigue  is  inevitable  —  when 
health,  too,  is  weak — (and  on  this  to-dayf  let  me 
*  See  note  above,  p.  2,67.  f  See  p.  254,  n. 


284  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

lay  the  greater  stress) — still  under  such  circum- 
stances to  keep  the  heart  steady  and  strong — still 
to  go  on  in  patient  endurance — this  tenacity  of 
purpose  is  a  more  essential  characteristic  of  the 
Christian  life  than  all  the  courage,  whether 
physical  or  moral,  of  which  we  have  been  speak- 
ing. St.  Paul  would  hardly  be  the  large  example 
for  which  we  claim  him,  unless  he  furnished  us 
here  also  with  a  pattern  of  suffering  and  of 
triumph. 

The  passage  read  for  the  text  is  taken  from  that 
particular  part  of  his  life  where  this  feature  comes 
most  distinctly  into  view.  The  narrative  which 
ranges  from  the  nineteenth  chapter  of  the  Acts  to 
the  twenty-first,  taken  in  conjunction  with  what 
may  be  called  the   second  group  of  his  Epistles,* 


*  Under  this  term  I  include  the  two  Epistles  to  the  Corinthians 
and  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans.  I  am  persuaded  also  that  the  Gala- 
tians  (though  in  this  case  the  same  circumstantial  evidence  cannot 
be  adduced)  belongs  to  the  same  time :  and  I  think  even  an  argu- 
ment for  this  might  be  drawn  from  similarity  of  tone  and  traces  of 
discouraged  feeling.  Notice,  for  instance,  the  pathetic  reference  to 
his  past  state  of  health.     Gal.  iv.  13-15  ;  vi.  17. 


COURAGE    AND    PERSEVERANCE.  285 


bears  a  strong  impress  of  personal  experience  of 
this  kind  which  cannot  be  mistaken.  Leaving 
Ephesus  after  a  fearful  struggle  (to  which  he 
pointedly  alludes  in  the  first  letter  to  the  Corin- 
thians),* anxious  for  the  moral  state  of  the 
Church  of  Corinth,  depressed  in  mind  at  Troas 
because  he  heard  no  news  of  that  Church,  and 
met  not  '  Titus  his  brother/  and  in  Macedonia 
(though  he  did  meet  him  there,  and  there  wrote 
the  second  letter  to  the  Corinthians  with  an  en- 
couraged heart)  still  burdened  with  the  thought 
of  the  progress  of  the  Judaism,?;  party  (as  we  see 
from  the  letter  to  the  Galatians),f  and  laboriously 
occupied  with  the  business  of  the  collection, 
which  had  far   more   reference    (from  his  point  of 

*  Whether  the  struggle  mentioned  in  1  Cor.  xv.  3Z  is  identical 
with  the  scene  described  in  Acts  xix.,  need  not  be  discjssed  here. 
It  can  hardly  be  the  same  distress  as  that  which  is  alluded  to  in  2 
Cor.  i.  8-10;  and  that  passage  conveys  the  impression  rather  of 
protracted  sickness  and  suffering.  If  this  impression  is  correct,  the 
force  of  what  he  said  above  is  much  enhanced. 

f  This  date  for  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  (p.  284,  n.)  is  taken 
for  granted.  For  the  arguments  in  favour  of  the  opinion,  see  'Life 
and  Epistles,'  ii.  p.  164,  n. 


286  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

view)  to  the  healing  of  the  divisions  of  the  two 
sections  of  the  Church  than  any  mere  relief  of 
temporal  distress  in  Judaea,  we  have  here  (as  it 
were)  the  foreground  and  preface  of  that  state  of 
mind  which  is  perceived  very  clearly  in  the  Epistle 
written  at  Corinth  to  the  Romans.  We  know 
how  a  man's  inner  life  reveals  itself  in  his  corre- 
spondence ;  and  if  anxiety  did  weigh  heavily  on 
the  Apostle  at  this  time,  we  should  expect  to  find 
some  proof  of  it  in  this  letter  :  and  accordingly 
we  do  find  it.  He  is  on  the  eve  of  sailing  f  into 
Syria/*  And  how  does  he  speak  of  the  prospect  ? 
'  Now  I  beseech  you,  brethren,  for  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ's  sake,  and  for  the  love  of  the  Spirit, 
that  ye  strive  together  with  me  in  your  prayers  to 
God  for  me,  that  I  may  be  delivered  from  them 
that  do  not  believe  in  Judaea,  and  that  my  service 
which  I  have  for  Jerusalem  may  be  accepted  of 
the  saints/  He  does  hope  (through  their  prayers) 
that  he  may  be  delivered,  and  that  after  some 
good  success  in   securing   the  unity  he  longed  to 

*  Rom.  xv.  30,  31. 


COURAGE    AND     PERSEVERANCE.  287 

establish,  he  may  at  length  fulfil  the  desire  of  his 
heart — may  eometothem  '  with  joy  by  the  will  of 
God/  and  {  with  them'  be  '  refreshed/  Yet 
still  he  is  evidently  distressed  by  fear ;  and  a 
prompt  practical  commentary  on  this  state  of 
misgiving  and  apprehension  soon  followed  the 
sending  of  the  letter ;  for  a  plot  against  his  life 
forced  him  to  abandon  his  plan  of  a  direct  voyage 
to  Syria,  and  to  travel  round  by  Macedonia  and 
Troas.  In  the  narrative  of  what  occurred  at 
Troas  there  is  no  notice  of  any  forebodings  of 
evil  expressed  either  by  Paul  himself  or  by  others  to 
him.  And  yet  a  shade  of  melancholy  always 
seems  to  me  to  rest  on  that  scene  in  the  upper 
room,  when  the  indefatigable*  teacher  pursued 
his  discourse    all  through    the   night,  and   where 

*  Ewald  has  expressed  in  a  few  words  the  feeling  which  this  pas- 
sage communicates  of  an  unwearied  tenacious  hahit  of  work. 
('  Gesehichte  des  Volks  Israel,'  vi.  p.  487.)  There  is  no  man's  life 
which  is  a  more  constant  and  unanswerable  rebuke  of  the  sin  of 
idleness,  than  the  life  of  St.  Paul.  Wherever  we  see  him  (as  Nie- 
meyer  says,  p.  215),  '  Paul  us  ist  iiberall  der  geschaffig  arbeitende 
Mann.'     See  above,  p.  266,  n. 


288  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

death  so  suddenly  appeared  and  disappeared 
amongst  them.  It  may  be  that  St.  Luke,  who 
must  have  shared  St.  Paul's  feeling,  has  incident- 
ally introduced  into  the  narrative  a  slight  under- 
tone of  sadness,  without  saying  a  word  of  any 
special  intimations  of  evil ;  or  it  may  be  that  an 
impression  is  produced  by  the  Apostle's  desire  for 
solitude*  immediately  on  leaving  this  crowded 
meeting,  and  before  joining  the  ship  which  was 
going  round  to  Assos ;  or  it  may  be  that  it  is 
merely  a  shadow  cast  backwards  from  what  we 
know  to  have  been  felt  and  said  at  Miletus.  To 
that  place  the  voyage  now  continues,  along  that 
beautiful  coast  and  among  those  famous  islands,  in 
the  early  spring,  while  the  advancing   season  was 

*  I  believe  I  have  been  thought  fanciful  ('  Life  and  Epistles,'  ii.  p. 
259)  in  making  so  much  of  the  incidental  statement  in  Acts  xx.  13; 
and  some  are  of  opinion  that  Paul  chose  this  route  in  order  that  he 
might  visit  some  friends  on  the  way  ;  but  I  am  confirmed  by  the 
penetrating  sagacity  of  Ewald,  who  says  (p.  487)  that  '  Paulus  sehnte 
sich  so  sehr  nach  Einsamkeit,'  that  he  took  this  road,  while  the 
others  went  round  the  cape  in  the  ship.  For  the  bearing  of  this  on 
St.  Paul,  considered  as  an  example  of  private  devotion,  see  Lect. 
IV.  p.  231. 


COURAGE    AND    PERSEVERANCE.  289 

clothing  with  a  fresher  green  every  low  shore  and 
every  broken  headland.  The  days  of  unleavened 
bread  were  past,  and  Pentecost  was  approaching, 
just  as  now  it  is  with  ourselves.*  Nowhere,  in 
all  the  books  that  ever  were  written,  can  we  find 
anything  more  affecting  than  the  interview  of  St. 
Paul  with  the  Ephesian  elders  :f  and  much  of  the 
impression  is  caused  by  the  foreboding  state  of 
mind  which  comes  here  very  clearly  to  light.  *  He 
reminds  them  of  the  past — of  the  doctrines  he 
had  taught  them — of  his  warnings  (  by  the  space 
of  three  years '  J — of  the  example  he  had  given 
them — of  fthe  words  of  the  Lord  Jesus.' §     Bat 


*  This  sermon  was  preached  on  the  Sunday  before  Ascension 
Day. 

f  See  Lect.  II.  p.  71.  +  Acts  xx.  31,  35. 

§  There  is  in  these  concluding  words  a  world  of  evidence  for  the 
authenticity  of  the  speech, — whether  we  consider  the  unmistakeable 
harmony  of  the  saying  with  all  that  we  read  of  our  Saviour  in  the 
Gospels — or  the  consistency  of  St.  Paul  with  himself  in  thus  con- 
cluding with  a  reference  to  his  dear  Lord  and  Master,  and  then  im- 
mediately kneeling  down  to  pray — or  the  impossibility  that  either 
forgery  or  tradition  could  have  fitted  such  a  quotation  into  such  a 
scene. 


29O  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

the  future  is  still  principally  in  his  thoughts.  His 
first  care  is,  of  course,  for  the  purity  of  the 
Gospel  and  for  the  Church  which  Christ  had 
'  purchased  with  His  own  blood  : ' — '  I  know  that 
after  my  departing  shall  grievous  wolves  enter  in, 
not  sparing  the  flock.''*  But  he  was  not  insen- 
sible to  the  evils  which  impended  over  himself. 
We  can  feel,  as  we  read,  the  burden  which  pressed 
down  his  spirit.  '  Now,  behold,  I  go  bound  in 
the  Spirit  to  Jerusalem,  not  knowing  the  things 
that  shall  befall  me  there,  save  that  the  Holy 
Ghost  witnesseth  in  every  city,f  saying  that  bonds 
and  afflictions  abide  me/J  The  cloud  has  not  dis- 
persed since  he  departed  from  Corinth  :  it  seems 
rather  to  have  grown  heavier  and  blacker.  Then 
he  hoped,  as  he  wrote  to  the  Romans, §  that  he 

*  Acts  xx.  28,  29. 

f  In  Tioas,  therefore,  as  well  as  elsewhere.     See  above,  p.  285. 

X  Acts  xx.  22,  23. 

§  Evvald  notices  how,  in  writing  to  the  Romans,  Paul  hopefully 
viewed  that  letter  as  a  forerunner  of  a  journey  to  Rome  and  to 
Spain,  but  how  gradually  his  mind  was  concentrated  with  sad  fore- 
bodings on  Jerusalem  (p.  486),  and  how,  as  he  approached  that 
city  nearer  and  nearer,  and  gave   his  th'  ughts  more  and  more  to 


COURAGE    AND    PERSEVERANCE.  20,1 

should  be  delivered,  by  help  of  their  prayess, 
from  those  in  Judoea  that  '  did  not  believe/  Now, 
he  looks  upon  it  as  certain  that  bonds  and  afflic- 
tions must  overtake  him  there.  These  things, 
indeed,  do  not  shake  his  determination  (though 
his  heart  is  almost  broken)  ;  they  do  not  make 
him  waver  for  a  moment,  or  hesitate  as  to  the 
course  to  be  followed :  and  this  is  the  point  be- 
fore us.  This  despondency  is  the  shade  which 
brings  out  his  calm  and  noble  resolve  into 
brighter  and  firmer  relief.  '  None  of  these  things 
move  me,  neither  count  I  my  life  dear  unto  myself, 
so  that  I  might  finish  my  course  with  joy,  and 
the  ministry,  which  I  have  received  of  the  Lord 
Jesus,  to  testify  the  Gospel  of  the  grace  of  God.' 
He  does  not,  indeed,  desire  suffering;  and  danger 
— nay,  he  really  dreads  these  things — but  he  does 
not  hesitate  to  face  them :  he  perseveres  in  spite 
of   discouragement,  proceeds    to  the  ship  in  the 

what  might  happen  there,  the  '  schlimme  Ahnung '  became  stronger 
(p.  488).     With  this  compare  what   Paley  wrote  long  ago  in  the 
1  Horse  Paulinae  '  (Rom.  No.  v.) 
*  Acts  xx.  24. 

U    Z 


293  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

midst  of  tears,  and  sails  for  Syria.*  There,  on 
landing  at  Tyre,  the  first  sound  that  meets  his  ear 
is  an  echo  of  the  thoughts  which  had  been  work- 
ing in  his  mind.  The  disciples  there  'said  to 
him,  through  the  Spirit,  that  he  should  not  go  to 

*  More  than  once  in  these  Lectures  reference  has  been  made  to 
the  close  resemblances  between  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul  and  this  one 
speech  in  the  Acts  which  the  Apostle  addressed  to  a  Christian  audi- 
ence. And  this  seems  the  best  place  to  refer  to  an  excellent  Essay  by 
Tholuck,  '  Die  Reden  des  Apostels  Paulus  in  der  Apostel-Geschichte 
mit  seinen  Briefen  verglichen,'  in  the  '  Theol.  Stud.  u.  Kritik. ' 
for  1839.  He  begins  by  observing  that  the  characteristics  of  St. 
Paul  are  so  strongly  marked  in  the  Epistles,  that  we  easily  recognize 
the  s:ime  man  elsewhere.  If  it  be  said  that  the  more  marked  the 
characteristics,  the  easier  they  are  to  forge  (as  even  a  bad  painter 
can  produce  a  good  resemblance  of  Napoleon),  he  replies  that  the 
Apocryphal  writings  do  not  aim  at  this  kind  of  artistic  imitation. 
Paley  makes  a  similar  remark  concerning  the  Evangelists,  and  it  is 
not  out  of  place  to  quote  it  here.  '  I  do  not  deny  that  a  dramatic 
writer  is  able  to  sustain  propriety  and  distinction  of  character,  through 
a  great  variety  of  separate  incidents  and  situations.  But  the  Evan- 
gelists were  not  dramatic  writers ;  nor  will  it,  I  believe,  be  suspected 
that  they  studied  uniformity  of  character,  or  even  thought  of  any 
such  thing,  in  the  person  who  was  the  subject  of  their  histories.' 
'  Evidences.'  Pt.  ii.  ch.  iv. 

The  characteristics  which  Tholuck  marks  in  the  Epistles  are 
Energie  und  Feuer,  Besonnenheit  und  Klugheit,  Jnnigkeit  und 
I  far  77i  e  ;  and  all  these  he  correctly  traces  in  the  speech  before  us. 


COURAGE    AND    PERSEVERANCE.  293 

Jerusalem/*  From  Tyre  we  follow  him  to 
CcBsarea  :  and  here  the  whole  subject  culminates 
in  our  text.  In  that  city — now  within  a  short 
journey  from  Jerusalem — St.  Paul  would  not  be 
likely  to  forget,  for  any  long  interval,  his  ap- 
proaching calamities.  If  he  did  forget,  he  was 
soon  reminded  of  them,  when  Agabus  came  down 
from  Jerusalem,  and  (with  the  dramatic  gestures 
of  a  prophet  of  the  Old  Testament)  l  bound  his 
own  hands  and  feet  with  Paul's  girdle,  and  said  : 
Thus  saifeh  the  Holy  Ghost,  So  shall  the  Jews  at 
Jerusalem  bind  the  man  that  owneth  this  girdle, 
and    shall    deliver    him    into    the    hands    of    the 

In  Paul's  reference  to  his  conscientiousness  (18-21)  he  recognizes 
the  same  voice  which  we  hear  in  1  Thess.  ii.  10,  and  2  Cor.  vi.  3, 
4.  His  allusions  to  his  own  example  are  compared  with  1  Cor.  xi. 
1,  an.l  Phil.  iii.  15.  The  tears  expressive  of  suffering  have  already- 
been  referred  to  in  these  Lectures,  p.  73.  The  charge  to  the  elders 
(28)  to  take  heed,  first  to  themselves,  and  then  to  the  flock,  is 
compared  with  1  Tim.  iv.  16,  The  purchase  of  the  Church  by 
for  Christ  Himself  is  urged  in  v.  28,  as  in  Tit.  ii.  14.  Ver.  32  is 
like  the  end  of  one  of  the  Epistles,  e.g.  Rom.  xvi.  25.  Ewald's 
dictum,  given  many  years  afterwards,  is  true  (p.  488),  that  to 
doubt  the  authenticity  of  this  speech  is  '  die  Thoiheit  selbst.' 
*  Acts  xxi.  4. 


294  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAIL. 

Gentiles/*  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  this 
prophecy  of  Agabus  (like  the  others  which  pre- 
ceded it),  while  it  practically  at  the  time  tested 
St.  Paul's  principle,  was  intended  to  bring  out 
into  view,  for  our  benefit,  that  characteristic  of 
the  Apostle  on  which  our  attention  is  engaged — 
viz.  the  power  of  steadily  persisting  in  the  midst 
of  circumstances  the  most  likely  to  make  him 
waver.  ( When  we  heard  these  things,  both  ive,3 
says  St.  Luke,  '  and  they  of  that  place  besought 
him  not  to  go.  Then  Paid  answered,  What 
■mean  ye  to  weep  and  to  break  mine  heart  ? 
for  I  am  ready,  not  to  he  hound  only,  hui 
also  to  die  at  Jerusalem  for  the  name  of  the 
Lord  Jesus.'f  '  And  when  he  would  not  be 
persuaded,  we  ceased,  saying,  The  will  of  the 
Lord  be  done/ J  So  he  went,  cahnly  and  without 
faltering,  but  with   a   heavy   heart,  to  Jerusalem. 

*  Acts  xxi.  ii. 

f  This  phrase  '  The  Lord  Jesus?  so  expressive  of  loyalty  and 
affection,  and  found  both  here  and  in  Acts  xx.  24,  35,  is  used  with 
similar  feeling  in  Rom.  x.  19  ;  1  Cor.  x.  5,  xi.  23  ;  Gal.  v.  17  ;  z 
Cor.  i.  14,  iv.  10. 

X  Acts  xxi.  12—14. 


COURAGE    AND    PERSEVERANCE.  295 

The  bursting  of  the  storm,  and  the  circumstances 
which  followed,  are  no  part ,  of  our  present  sub- 
ject. All  that  remains  is  to  illustrate  what  has 
been  at  some  length  adduced  from  one  period  of 
St.  Paul's  life  by  a  very  brief  notice  of  instances 
of  the  same  kind  from  three  other  periods. 

Though,  as  I  have  said,  this  is  the  main  passage 
of  the  life,  where  this  feature  of  character  is  most 
fully  displayed,  it  is  by  no  means  the  only  one 
where  this  same  quality  of  steady  perseverance 
under  difficulties  is  discovered.  We  might  glance 
backwards  (and  with  the  same  results)  at  the 
period  of  the  first  group  of  Epistles,  when — 
after  his  solitary  time  of  trial  at  Athens* — he  was 
in  weakness  and  in  fear  and  much  trembling  'f  at 
Corinth,  and  when — reinforced  by  the  arrival  of 
Silas  and  Timotheus,  and  still  more  by  a  comrau- 

*  1  Thess.  iii.  1.     See  pp.  99,  274. 

f  1  Cor.  ii.  3.  See  p.  97,  n.  There  it  was  noticed  that  the 
phrase,  if  understood  to  denote  the  sense  of  anxious  responsibility, 
implies  the  opposite  of  self-confidence.  Here  it  may  be  added  that, 
on  the  same  view,  it  implies  a  steady  intention  to  continue  in  the 
discharge  of  duty. 


296  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

nication  from  Heaven — he  wrote  twice  to  Thessa- 
lonica.*  But  time  now  urges  me  rapidly  forward ; 
and  space  must  be  found  at  the  end  for  a  few 
words  suggested  by  the  place  where  I  am  preach- 
ing^ and  also  for  the  charitable  work  which  is  to 
plead  for  your  sympathy  and  help.J  Let  me, 
then,  simply  notice  how  expressions  in  the  Epistles 
to  the  Thessalonians  are  in  harmony  with  what 
has  been  said ;  as  when  Paul  speaks  of  his  '  bold- 
ness* (he  would  hardly  have  said  this,  if  boldness 
had  always  been  easy,  and  a  matter  of  course)  ; 
or  when  he  dwells  on  afflictions,  both  theirs  and 
his  own ;  or  when  he  asks  for  their  prayers  in  his 
present  conflict ;  or  when  he  urges  them,  as  he 
does  very  emphatically,  to  be  strenuous  and 
patient  and  stedfast.§  All  this  shows  very  clearly 
that  his  experience  at  this  time  was  that  of 
divinely-supported  courage  triumphing  over  fear.  || 

*  xviii.  5,  9,  10;   1  Thess.  iii.  6,  7. 

f  This  Sermon  was  preached  in  King's  College  Chapel.     Sec 
above,  p.  253. 

X  See  p.  254,  n,  and  p.  312,  n. 

§  1  Thess.  ii.  2,  14  ;  iii.  2,  3,  13  ;  v.  14. 

||  2  Thess.  i.  4;  ii.  15,  17  ;  iii.  2,  3. 


COURAGE    AND    PERSEVERANCE.  297 

To  proceed,  therefore.  As,  in  glancing  back- 
wards, from  the  period  on  which  we  have  princi- 
pally dwelt,  we  see  proofs  of  this  trait  of  the 
Apostle's  character — this  triumph  of  hope  over 
despondency — so  we  find  the  same  in  glancing 
onward  to  the  periods  corresponding  with  what 
may  be  called  the  third  group*  and  the  last  group 
of  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul.  Passing  by  all  that 
happened  at  Jerusalem,  Caesarea,  and  on  the 
voyage,  and  coming  to  the  verge  of  his  arrival  at 
Rome,  when  he  is  almost  in  sight  of  the  city  he 
had  longed  to  see,  but  arriving  in  a  guise  very 
different  from  what  he  expected,  f  and  under 
circumstances  enough  to  break  even  a  stout  heart, 
what  do  we  learn  concerning  his  state  of  mind  ? 
The  Apostolic  prisoner  was  joined  by  Christian 
brethren,;];  who  had  come  to  meet  him   '  as   far  as 

*  Colossians,  Ephesians,  Philemon,  and  Philippians,  written  after 
the  arrival  in  Rome. 

f  Compare  Ewakl  (p.  513),  who  particularly  notices  also  the 
prompt  heginning  of  work  immediately  after  the  arrival  at  Rome. 
See  below,  p.  299,  and  above,  p.  287,  n. 

%  See  Lect.  IV.  p.  288. 


298  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 


Appii  Forum  and  The  Three  Taverns  :*  whom 
when  Paul  saw,  he  thanked  God,  and  took  courage.' f 
Is  there  not  evident  proof  here  of  that  sinking  of 
spirit  and  that  elastic  recovery,  which  together 
make  up  the  feature  I  am  attempting  to  delineate  ? 
One  would  suppose,  on  a  superficial  view  of  this 
Apostle,  that  he  (of  all  men)  had  no  need  '  to 
take  courage/  Pie  is  represented  in  ancient 
pictures  as  bearing  a  sword :  and  we  all  feel 
that  the  emblem  is  most  appropriate,  not  only  as 
a  memorial  of  his  martyrdom,  but  also  as  a  de- 
scription of  his  character.J     We  all  find  it  natural 

*  There  is  in  Josephus  a  curious  parallel  to  this  incident,  which 
I  do  not  see  noticed  by  the  commentators,  and  which  is  worth 
mentioning,  though  it  has  no  direct  connection  with  the  subject  of 
these  Lectures.  When  the  pretender  Herod  went  to  Rome,  and 
had  landed  at  Puteoli,  the  Jews  of  Rome,  hearing  of  his  arrival, 
went  out  along  the  Appian  way  to  meet  him.  Joseph.  '  Antiq. ' 
xvii.  12,  1. 

f  Acts  xxviii.  15. 

X  When  St.  Paul  is  represented  in  art  as  a  single  figure,  some- 
times he  rests  on  a  sword,  sometimes  he  holds  a  sword,  sometimes 
two  swords  ;  and  there  are  cases  where  he  appears  with  a  sword  and 
a  book.  As  to  the  meaning  of  the  sword,  it  is  partly  the  Apostle's 
attribute  in  reference  to  his  martyrdom,  partly  an  emblem  of  his 


COURAGE    AND    PERSEVERANCE.  2Q9 


to  think  of  him  as  one  whose  head  was  covered 
with  '  the  helmet  of  salvation/  and  his  loins  '  girt 
about  with  truth/*  and  having  on  ' the  breast- 
plate  of  righteousness/  and  his  feet  'shod  with 
the  preparation  of  the  Gospel  of  Peace* — as  one 
who  slept  in  his  armour,  with  his  hand  ever 
grasping  'the  sword  of  the  Spirit,  which  is  the 
word  of  God/  And  these  are  the  words,  the  strong 
and  exulting  words,  which  he  himself  employs,  in 
one  of  the  Epistles  written  in  this  very  imprison- 
ment. Nowhere  have  we  a  better  proof  of  his 
strong  tenacity  than  in  this  third  group  of  Epistles 
— combining  them,  as  of  course  we  must,  with 
what  are  read  at  the  end  of  the  Acts,  of  his 
prompt  beginning  of  his  work  'after  three  days/ 
and  of  his  patient  continuance  of  it  '  with  all 
confidence '  for  'two  whole  years. 'f  'I  desire 
that  ye  faint  not  at  my  tribulations/ J   he  says  in 

character  and  career,  and  partly  suggested,  perhaps,  by  Eph.  vi.  17. 
Where  there  are  two  swords,  one  is  the  attribute,  the  other  the 
emblem. 

*  Eph.  vi.  14-17.  f  Acts  xxviii.  17,  $0,  31. 

%  Eph.  iii.  13. 


3OO  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

Ephesians.,  which  has  already  been  quoted.  And 
mark  the  cheerful  tone  in  which  he  writes  to 
Philemon,  and  the  strong,  confident,  even  san- 
guine strain  which  runs  through  the  Epistle  to  the 
Colossians.  He  writes  among  soldiers ;  and  there 
is  a  certain  military  language  which  we  can  follow 
through  these  writings.*  The  very  circumstances 
of  his  present  suffering  and  restraint  are  made  the 
ground  of  upholding  and  encouraging  others. 
Especially  we  should  mark  the  language  used  to 
the  Philippians  :  { I  would  ye  should  understand, 
brethren,  that  the  things  which  have  happened 
unto  me  have  fallen  out  rather  unto  the  further- 
ance of  the  Gospel,  so  that  my  bonds  in  Christ 
are  manifest  in  all  the  Palace,  and  many  of  the 
brethren,  waxing  confident  by  my  bonds,  are  much 
more  bold  to  speak  the  word  without  fear/f  And 
again,  when  he  charges  them  so  to  live  that  he 
may  '  rejoice  in  the  day  of  Christ,  that  he  has  not 

*  In  Philem.  i.,  he  calls  Archippus  his  aucrTparLcoTrjs.  Seei-d^iv 
in  Col.  ii.  5,  and  dpia/uL^evco  in  Col.  ii.  15,  and  connect  these  phrases 
with  the  sights  and  sounds  among  which  he  was  living  at  Rome. 

f  Phil.  i.  12-14. 


COURAGE    AND    PERSEVERANCE.  3OI 

run  in  vain,  neither  laboured  in  vain/  he  adds, 
'Yea:  and  if  I  be  now  at  this  moment  on  the 
point  of  being  offered  upon  the  sacrifice  and 
service  of  your  faith,  I  joy  and  rejoice  with  you 
all/*  Who  does  not  recognise  here  the  same 
man,  ever  consistent  with  himself,  ever  suffering, 
but  ever,  by  divine  grace  and  providential  help, 
rising  above  his  sufferings,  who  spoke  six  years  be- 
fore to  the  elders  at  Miletus  ?f 

And  who  does  not  recognise  the  same  voice 
again — the  same  genuine  voice  of  the  martyr- 
Apostle — if  we  look  forward  some,  six  years  more 
to  the  last  group  of  letters  ?  ' I  am  now  ready  to 
be  offered/  he  says  in  his  latest  Epistle,  'and  the 
time  of  my  departure  is  at  hand.      I  have  fought 

*  Phil.  ii.  16,  17.  Observe  also,  in  this  Epistle,  such  phrases  as 
the  following:  Trapprjaia  (i.  20),  TrpoKuirr]  (25),  "noXirevecOe  (if), 
&7aSi/a  (30),  "iva  Ka,yu>  evrpnx^  (ii.  if))>  arvaTpariuiTrfs  (25),  irapa- 
fio\ev(Tdfxivos  rfj  \pvxjj  (30),  erHj/ceTe  (iv.  1),  <ppovpr}a€i  (7),  and 
iravra  iVx^w  iu  t§  tvZvva.jj.wvTi  jxe  (13)  in  conjunction  with  dkiipis 
in  the  next  verse.  All  this  imagery  is  in  close  harmony  with  the 
general  tone  of  the  Epistle,  and  indicates  divinely-supported  vigour 
rising  triumphantly  above  natural  sinking  of  heart. 

+  See  Tholuck,  p.  317. 


3CU  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

the  good  fight,  I  have  finished  my  course,  I  have 
kept  the  faith :  Henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for  me 
the  crown  of  righteousness,  which  the  Lord,  the 
righteous  Judge,  shall  give  me  at  that  day/*  Still 
the  same  patient  endurance  (for,  after  all,  patience 
ought  to  be  substituted  for  impatience^  in  our  full 
estimate  of  this  man — still  the  very  same  favourite 
metaphor  of  the  ( race '  or  the  ' course/  which  he 
used  in  speaking  at  Miletus  and  in  writing  to  the 
Philippians/f     Still,  too,  the  same  injunctions  to 

*  2  Tim.  iv.  6-8. 

t  See  above,  p.  z6t,.  In  a  character  which  is  naturally  eager, 
patient  endurance  is  one  of  the  highest  virtues.  Niemeyer  puts  this 
very  forcibly,  in  reference  to  St.  Paul. 

X  I  have  already,  in  the  course  of  this  Lecture,  referred  to  St. 
Paul's  architectural  and  military  metaphors  as  indicative  of  his 
strength  and  steadiness  of  purpose  (pp.  28 1,  300).  Here  we  are  in 
contact  with  a  third  class  of  metaphors,  indicative  of  activity  and 
progress.  There  is  a  striking  sermon  on  this  text  (2  Tim.  iv.  6-8), 
by  an  eminent  man  ('UpoviK-qs,  or  '  The  Fight,  Victory,  and 
Triumph  of  St.  Paul,'  preached  in  1660  on  occasion  of  the  death  of 
Bishop  Montagu).  The  preacher,  Dr.  Barwick,  Dean  of  St.  Paul's, 
notices  (p.  5),  that  all  the  principal  words  in  the  passage  'must  be 
understood  as  terms  altogether  agonistical,'  and  says  truly  of  the 
Apostle  Cp.  7),  '  What  he  did  is  but  briefly  (and  yet  not  entirely) 
recorded  by  St.  Luke  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  though  it  takes  up 


COURAGE  AND  PERSEVERANCE.    303 

Timothy,  both  in  this  letter  and  the  other,  as  also 
to  Titus,  to  be  stedfast  and  to  c  war  a  good  war- 
fare/* Still  the  same  brave  spirit  at  the  last ;  but 
brave  in  the  midst  of  discouraging  circumstances, 
and  after  longer  experience  of  sorrow  and  struggle 
and  of  bitter,  most  bitter  disappointment.  His 
conviction  of  God's  mercy  and  power  grows 
stronger  as  he  knows  more  of  man's  perversity 
and  weakness.  He  is  again  and  for  the  last  time 
a  prisoner  :  '  but/  he  adds,  (and  what  a  world  of 
faith  is  in  the  sentence  !)  '  the  word  of  God  is  not 
bound.' f  '  At  my  first  answer  no  man  stood  with 
me,  but  all  men  forsook  me.  Notwithstanding 
the  Lord  stood  with  me,  and  strengthened  me ; 
that  by  me  the  preaching  might  be  fully  known  : 
and  the  Lord  shall  deliver  me  from  every  evil 
work,   and    will    preserve  me  unto  His  heavenly 

that  whole  history  for  the  most  part ;  and  what  he  suffered  can 
hardly  be  expressed  hy  his  own  pen  (z  Cor.  xi.),  though  what  is 
there  expressed  will  make  another  man  shrink  at  the  very  reading 
of  it.' 

*  1  Tim.  i.  18.  t  2  Tim.  ii.  9. 


304  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

kingdom :  to  Whom  be  glory  for  ever  and  ever ! 
Amen/* 

On  the  whole,  our  survey  of  this  one  aspect  of 
the  Apostle's  mind  and  conduct  leads  us  to  the 
conclusion  (whatever  we  may  say  of  his  physical 
courage,  or  even  of  his  moral  courage,  as  given 
to  him  by  nature)  that  the  main  impression  is  not 
of  any  mere  natural  power,  but  of  a  glorious  re- 
sult of  divine  grace  strengthening  natural  weak- 
ness, whether  by  direct  communications  or  by 
providential  means.  The  secret  of  this  courage 
and  perseverance  was  confidence  in  God's  promise 
and  power.  We  must  not  forget  the  visions 
which  he  received  on  critical  occasions  to  reinforce 
his  failing  energy,  as  at  Corinth  and  in  the  tower 
of  Antonia  and  on  board  the  ship.  It  was  his 
faith  that  gave  him  courage.  It  was  his  loving 
loyal  unwavering  attachment  to  Jesus  Christ  that 
made  it  impossible  for  him  not  to  persevere.-)-     It 

*   2  Tim.  iv.  16-18. 

T  Niemeyer,  in  some  warm  paragraphs,  shows  how  full  Paul  was 
of  Christ,  how  he  knows  no  title  so  dear  as  that  of  '  servant  of 
Christ,'  no  motive  so  strong  as  that  of  '  love  to  Christ,' — how  this 


COURAGE    AND    PERSEVERANCE.  305 


was  Christ  strengthening  him  that  made  him 
strong.  The  whole  great  principle  is  expressed  in 
the  words  which  he  used  to  Agrippa — and  they 
are  in  harmony  with  what  he  writes  again  and 
again  in  his  Epistles — c  Having  obtained  help  of 
God  I  continue  unto  this  day/* 

Now  this  brings  Paul  very  near  to  us.f     That 

motive  urged  him  to  perpetual  activity  ({  Seine  Liebe  zu  Jesu  ist 
That') — how  he  forgets  all  for  Him — how  each  new  impulse  of 
zeal,  each  new  journey,  each  new  readiness  to  endure  discomfort, 
each  new  resolution  never  to  be  weary,  springs  from  this  one  mov- 
ing power.  And  with  all  this  Thdtigkeit  of  the  Apostle  he 
observes  (what  is  even  more  to  our  purpose  in  the  present  Lecture) 
how  all  his  Standhaftighcit  arose  from  the  same  source,  pp.  210- 
213.  As  to  St.  Paul's  Faith,  this  cardinal  word,  which  expresses 
the  whole  secret  of  his  life,  has  been  but  little  used  in  these  Lec- 
tures ;  but  nearly  all  parts  of  them  imply  it.  The  subject  is  well 
unfolded  in  one  of  Besser's  chapters,  '  Der  Mann  der  Glaube.' 

*  Acts  xxvi.  22. 

f  The  accessibility  of  St.  Paul's  example  is  dwelt  on  by  A. 
Monod.  There  are  some  good  remarks  on  this  subject  in  Cecil's 
'Remains'  (p.  33$).  'I  delight  to  contemplate  St.  Paul  as  an 
appointed  pattern.  Men  might  have  questioned  the  propriety  of 
urging  on  them  the  example  of  Christ :  they  might  have  said  that 
we  are  necessarily  in  dissimilar  circumstances.     But  St.  Paul  stands 

up  in  like  case  with  ourselves — a  model  of  ministerial  virtues 

He  was  no  farther  fitted  to  his  circumstances  than   every  Christian 

X 


306     THE  CHARACTER  OF  ST  PAUL. 

which  was  the  essential  principle  of  his  courage 
must  be  the  essential  principle  of  ours.  Hence 
our  courage  may  be  like  his.  He  was  consciously 
an  example  to  others,  even  as  he  was  consciously 
a  pattern  of  God's  mercy.  Hence  it  is  that  he 
speaks  so  much  of  his  own  weakness  and  of 
divine  power.  Will  it  be  said  that  miracles  and 
visions  and  the  like  make  an  interval,  which  can- 
not be  passed,  between  an  Apostle  and  ourselves  ? 
But  what  were  those  interpositions,  considered  in 
this  point  of  view,  but  merely  visible  manifesta- 
tions of  that  guidance  and  inward  strengthening 
which  are  vouchsafed  to  every  true  Christian  ? 
And  at  least  we  must  remember  that  St.  Paul  was 
not  an  Apostle  instead  of  being  a  Christian.  His 
Christianity  (so  to  speak)  underlies  his  Apostle- 
ship.  Inspiration  indeed  does  not  depend  on 
holiness.  But  it  seems  appointed  that  much  of 
the  highest  instruction  should  come  to  us  (even  in 

has  warrant  to  expect  to  be,  so  far  as  his  circumstances  are  simi- 
lar. .  .  .  And  we  should  remember,  that,  as  he  was  fitted  for  his  cir- 
cumstances, so  he  was.  in  a  great  degree,  made  by  them.' 


COURAGE    AND    PERSEVERANCE.  307 


the  Bible)  through  the  sufferings  and  struggles  of 
individual  men.  Perseverance  in  the  Christian  life 
is,  after  all,  the  basis  of  St.  Paul's  character.  ( I 
therefore  so  run,  not  as  uncertainly ;  so  fight  I, 
not  as  one  that  beateth  the  air  :  but  I  keep  under 
my  body  and  bring  it  into  subjection;  lest  that  by 
any  means,  when  I  have  preached  to  others,  I 
myself  should  be  a  castaway/*  e  Not  as  though 
I  had  already  attained,  but  I  follow  after.  This 
one  thing  I  do,  forgetting  those  things  which  are 
behind,  and  reaching  forth  unto  those  things 
which  are  before,  I  press  toward  the  mark  for 
the  prize,  of  the  high  calling  of    God  in    Christ 

Jesus/f 

And  then  he  proceeds  :  '  Be  followers  together 
of  me,  and  mark  them  which  walk  so  as  ye  have 
us  for  an  ensample/J  How  can  I  preach  here, 
remembering  as  I  do  the  peculiar  circumstances 
which  connected  the  University  Sermons  of  No- 
vember, 1836,  with  this  Chapel,  without  referring 
to  one  of  whom  it  may  be  said  with  peculiar  em* 

*   1  Cor.  ix.  z6,  27.  f  Phil.  iii.  12-15.  +  *b.  '"•  l7' 


308  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

phasis  and  truth  (again  in  Paul's  words)  that  he 
followed  Paul  '  as  Paul  followed  Christ '  ?*  In 
this  building — where  the  morning  sun  throws  the 
coloured  light  of  that  window  -j-  which  contains  a 

*   1.  Cor.  xi.  1. 

f  Besides  the  interest  connected  with  the  conventional  modes  of 
representing  St.  Paul  in  art,  there  is  the  further  subject  of  the  selec- 
tion and  treatment  of  series  of  scenes  from  his  life.  When  we  con- 
sider how  adapted  a  multitude  of  such  scenes  are  for  artistic  repre- 
sentation, it  is  at  first  sight  remarkable  that  we  can  point  to  so  few 
such  series.  But  the  period  from  which  our  best  painted  glass  has 
come  down,  was  more  favourable  to  subjects  of  a  purely  legendary 
character.  Probably  no  windows  representing  incidents  in  St.  Paul's 
life  are  better  worth  attention  than  those  in  King's  College  Chapel. 
(See  the  papers  by  Mr.  Bolton  and  Mr.  Scharf  in  the  '  Archaeol. 
Journ.,'  vols.  xii.  and  xiii.)  After  following  from  the  north-west 
angle  a  long  succession  of  vast  fenestral  pictures,  which  display,  on 
the  principal  of  type  and  antitype,  passages  in  Our  Lord's  life  (His 
active  lite  being  given  within  the  choir),  we  come  on  the  south  side 
to  three  windows  containing  scenes  from  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles, 
two  being  entirely  devoted  to  St.  Paul.  In  these  are  given  eight 
subjects  (two  in  each  above,  and  two  below,  the  transom),  beginning 
from  the  Conversion,  and  ending  with  the  trial  before  Felix  or  Nero. 
That  which  represents  the  parting  seene  at  Caesarea  is  the  lower 
easternmost  compartment  of  the  twenty-third  window,  a  little  to  the 
east  of  the  south  door  The  Apostle  is  earnestly  addressing  those 
who  surround  him  ;  and  a  ship  is  in  the  offing,  of  course  with  the 
rig  of  the  time  of  Henry  VIII.     Historically  and  artistically  there  is 


COURAGE    AND    PERSEVERANCE.  309 

representation  of  the  scene  whence  my  text  has 
been  taken — rest  the  remains  of  one  *  who,  at  the 
hour  when  he  had  been  appointed  to  preach  before 
the  University — died — after  doing  more  here  for 
the  cause  of  Christ  than  any  other  man  in  the 
present  century.  I  hope  I  am  under  no  tempta- 
tion to  depreciate  other  influences  for  good  :  but 
Charles  Simeon  was  an  extraordinary  example  of 
a  life  sustained  by  prayer  against  difficulties,  of 
the  power  of  standing  alone  for  Christ  against  the 
world,  and  of  singleness  of  aim  from  first  to  last.f 

much  interest  in  these  windows,  especially  if  Erasmus,  who  was 
then  in  Cambridge  (1515-1530)  was  consulted  concerning  them  ; 
and  this  is  thought  probable  from  the  fact  that  the  texts  are  not 
taken  from  the  Vulgate.  Mr.  Bolton  desires  to  prove  that  these 
windows  were  executed  by  Englishmen  ;  but  Mr.  Scharf  traces  in 
them  the  hand  of  German  and  Flemish  artists,  with  son.e  degree  of 
Italian  influence,  and  especially  names  Holbein,  the  friend  of  Eras- 
mus. The  figure  of  St.  Luke,  four  times  repeated  in  these  parti- 
cular windows,  should  be  particularly  noticed. 

*  The  grave  of  Mr.  Simeon  is  nearly  half-way  between  the  north 
and  south  doors  of  the  ante-chapel. 

f  If  this  is  true  (and  I  do  not  see  how  it  can  be  doubted  by  any 
who  read  the  'Memoir '  of  his  life,  or  the  Sermons  preached  on  occa- 
sion of  his  death,  or  the  papers  on  the  subject,  which  appeared 
during  1837  in  the  '  Christian  Observer  '),  it  becomes  very  important 


THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 


Not  indeed  without  infirmities.  Possibly  it  is  a 
law  of  God's  kingdom  that  most  good  is  done  by 
those  who  have  marked  infirmities.  Who  knows 
what  weakness  clung  through  "life  to  the  very 
Apostles  ?  If  we  had  seen  St,  Paul,  we  might 
have  been  much  disappointed.  It  is  what  has 
been  well  called  the  '  dependent  and  disinterested 
spirit'* — it  is  that  which  marks  Apostles   and  the 

to  recollect  what  were  the  main  principles  of  Mr.  Simeon's  theo- 
logy. Four  features  of  it  undoubtedly  were  a  deep  reverence  for  the 
Bible,  a  settled  belief  in  the  Redemptive  work  of  Christ,  an  abiding 
sense  of  the  heinousness  of  Sin,  and  a  practical  conviction  of  the 
power  of  Prayei.  We  must  not  undervalue  what  we  have  since 
learnt  from  other  quarters ;  if,  for  instance,  on  one  side,  we  have 
acquired  a  higher  appreciation  of  the  Sacraments  as  means  of  grace, 
and  on  the  other  side,  have  learnt  to  modify  the  merely  technical 
view  of  Inspiration,  which  for  a  time  was  traditionally  received. 
But  the  principles  above  enumerated  constitute  the  strength  of 
Christianity  viewed  as  the  New  Testament  presents  it — not  simply 
as  a  means  of  improving  society,  but  as  a  remedial  system  for  in- 
dividual souls. 

*  This  is  the  expression  of  the  Rev.  John  Newton,  whose  «  Essay 
on  the  Character  of  St.  Paul,  considered  as  an  Exemplar  of  a 
Minister  of  Jesus  Christ'  ('Works,'  vol.  ii.  p.  294),  ought  to  be 
made  known  to  those  who  are  not  acquainted  with  it.  It  is  an 
Essay  written  in  a  most  discriminating  and  most  serious  spirit,  and 
marked  by  all  the  writer's  strong  sense  and   deep  experience.     An 


COURAGE    AND    PERSEVERANCE.  3H 

followers  of  Apostles — and  furnishes  them  with 
their  stedfast  courage  and  perseverance.  Such 
was  the  spirit  of  the  man  of  whom  I  speak  :  and, 
after  forty  years  of  scorn,  God  gave  him  honour 
in  old  age  and  in  death.  Universities  may  forget 
their  greatest  men ;  but  the  sight  of  such  a  funeral 
sinks  deep  into  an  undergraduate's  memory,  and 
remains  fresh  after  many  years.     Who  can  blame 

interesting  sketch  of  the  Apostle's  life  precedes  it  (pp.  235-Z85). 
To  follow  the  order  taken  in  this  course  of  Lectures,  (i.)  John  New- 
ton speaks  (p.  258)  of  Paul's  fine  address  in  the  opening  phrase  of 
the  speech  at  Athens,  which  is  '  suited  to  bespeak  a  favourable  hear- 
ing, rather  than  importing  an  abrupt  reproof;'  and  elsewhere 
(p.  306)  notices  the  benefit  of  combining  good  judgment  with 
zeal,  (ii.)  He  points  out  the  '  warmth  and  cordiality  of  his  love,' 
and  illustrates  it  by  the  sending  of  Epaphroditus  to  the  Philippians 
'  as  the  most  effectual  means  to  lessen  his  own  burden,  by  sympa- 
thising in  the  joy  his  friends  would  have  in  the  interview'  (p.  298). 
(iii.)  *  He  exercised  great  tenderness  to  weak  consciences,  when  the 
scruples  were  owing  rather  to  a  want  of  clear  light  than  to  obstinacy' 
(p.  301).  (iv.)  The  ardency  of  his  love  to  Christ  was  such,  that 
1  at  the  thought  of  it  he  often  seems  to  forget  his  subject,  and  breaks 
forth  into  inimitable  digressions  to  the  praise  of  Him  who  had  loved 
him  and  given  Himself  for  him'  (p.  297).  While  (v.)  there  was 
ever  in  St.  Paul  the  utmost  inflexibility  in  regard  to  great  truths. 
'  Who  has  offended  more  than  he  against  the  rules  of  that  indiffer- 
ence to  error  which  is  at  present  miscalled  charity  ? '  (p.  300). 


312  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

me  if  I  use  this  recollection  to  kindle  the  minds  of 
those  who  are  now  what  I  was  then  ? 

And  now  I  conclude  by  appealing  for  your  help 
towards  the  relief  of  suffering,  which,  though  very 
near  to  you,  does  not  very  readily  force  itself  on 
your  attention.  Yet  how  eloquent,  if  we  will 
listen,  is  the  mere  presence  of  a  Hospital  in  the 
midst  of  the  activity  and  cheerfulness  of  life  !  I 
remember  visiting  a  hospital  in  one  of  those  great 
northern  towns,  where  the  industry  of  the  place, 
carried  on  amidst  fire  and  machinery,  frequently 
results  in  frightful  burns,  wounds,  and  crushing 
bruises.  It  was  startling,  while  we  were  discuss- 
ing the  arrangements  of  the  building,  to  receive 
a  message  suddenly  to  say  that  one  of  these 
accidents  had  occurred.  IVe  were  all  in  health  ; 
and  the  strong  man  was  brought — with  limbs 
mangled  —  possibly  to  recover,  possibly  to  die. 
That  was  an  institution,  happily,  where  Christian 
care  was  ready  for  the  soul  as  well  as  the  body. 
So  it  is  here,  I  am  assured,  in  your  own  Hospital.* 

*  A  hospital  in  a  University  is  very  favourably  placed  in  this  re- 


COURAGE    AND    PERSEVERANCE.  313 


To  me  there  is  something  infinitely  affecting  in 
the  mere  thought  of  that  building — when  I  think 
also  of  the  vigorous  energy  and  joyous  spirits  of 
the  young  men  who  are  congregated  here.  (May 
God  long  preserve  these  powers,  and  sanctify  them 
to  holy  uses  !)  But  when  a  man  has  watched  his 
College  friends  die,  f  one  after  one ' — when  he  has 
had  some  experience  of  sorrow,  anxiety,  and  toil 
— then  the  unseen  contrast  of  suffering  and  joy, 
of  life  and  death,  becomes  palpable  and  visible, 
even  here.  I  might  speak  (and  very  suitably)  of 
other  aspects  of  this  Institution — of  the  blessing 
which  it  is  capable  of  giving  to  every  village  in 
the  county — of  its  connection  with  some  of  the 
noblest  studies  of  the  place  —  for  all  Physical 
Sciences  reach  their  highest  practical  point  when 
they  are  made  subservient  to  the  study  and  the 
relief  of  sickness  and  pain.  I  might  dwell  on 
the  importance    of  making  this  Hospital  perfect 

spect,  that  a  large  number  of  Clergymen  are  available  for  the  visiting 
of  the  patients.  I  should  imagine  it  might  also  be  made  reciprocally- 
very  useful,  as  a  means  of  supplying  to  those  who  are  destined  for 
the  Ministry  some  practical  knowledge  of  the  care  of  the  sick. 


3T4  THE    CHARACTER    OF    ST    PAUL. 

according  to  its  idea,  and  worthy  of  the  University  : 
— and  plans  are  now  in  progress  for  the  highest 
improvement;  but  I  would  rather  touch  the  in- 
ner chord  of  human  and  of  Christian  feeling. 
Do  not  put  aside  the  thought  of  suffering,  which 
soon  may  be  your  own.  Give — not  what  you  can 
easily  spare — but  what  you  feel  to  be  an  adequate 
expression  of  thoughtful  and  thankful  sympathy. 
I  ask  you  not  now  to  think  of  the  Apostle  Paul, 
but  to  think  of  Him  of  whom  it  was  said — the 
words  were  read  this  morning  in  every  College 
Chapel,*  as  if  to  harmonise  with  the  subject  of 
our  present  thoughts — '  Himself  took  our  infirmi- 
ties and  bare  our  sicknesses. '-j- 

*  The  Sunday  before  Ascension  Day  fell  this  year  on  the  10th  of 
May. 

f  Matt.  viii.  17. 


